Waking Up
by InfiniteRiver
Summary: Welcome to the world of Pokémon! Here, the creatures are way more violent, stuff can actually die, and all of the food is either dead stuff or has a crazy side effect. Great game, right? Rated T for minor violence and swearing.
1. An Inflation Sensation

I even Miss the Pickles

Arc #1, Waking Up

_I'm waking up_

_To ash and dust_

_I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust_

_I'm breathing in_

_The chemicals…_

I woke up in the wrong bed. My first thought was that I was kidnapped. My second, more rational, thought was that this was just an incredibly lucid dream. I couldn't decide which of the thoughts was more likely to be true, so I opened my eyes.

I was staring at a ceiling. There weren't any cracks, or cobwebs, so scratch the abandoned basement. I sat up, observing my surroundings.

The bed was in the corner of the room, which was large and square-shaped. A pink comforter lay on top of me, and I gagged; I hate the color pink. Despise it. Puke-worthy beds aside, the walls were also colored pink, and the carpet was a creamish color. I didn't know whose room this was, but their interior decorating skills sucked.

A TV was on the wall opposite the door, and in front of it lay a WiiU. A lavender bean bag chair sat in the corner, a desk in the one adjacent to it. Okay, I thought to myself, this was NOT a kidnapping hidey-hole, unless I was snatched by some sort of psychotic billionaire.

"River!" A voice yelled from what I assumed was downstairs. I didn't know who she was. Sure, I used it as my AKA name, such as in Pokémon, when InfiniteRiver just sounded weird. Then I realized.

I was in the Pokémon X/Y's main character's room. Same TV, same WiiU, same everything. Was I really IN Pokémon? I had no idea.

"River! Come on down!" The voice was more insistent. At least it didn't sound like some crazy male kidnapper with way too much testosterone. I decided to, very warily, head downstairs.

Halfway down the staircase, I tripped.

One moment I was ready to take the next step downwards, the next I had no idea which way was up, or down, or even where my flailing hands were. I screamed, and I heard a sort of trillish screaming along with mine.

The kitchen was right below the staircase, and I fell in, head over heels. And it hurt. I gasped, because it meant that I wasn't dreaming. Was I kidnapped in some sort of Pokémon replica world, maybe?

"Oh my goodness, River! Are you okay?!" The woman I assumed was my kidnapper stood over me, a giant semi-afro of chestnut-colored hair outlining her concerned face. I gasped again, because this woman was Grace from Pokémon X and Y, in the flesh and blood. And I think she was my mother.

"I'm fine. I've been through worse." It's true; I was in a nasty bike accident when I was nine, almost ten. I still have the scar on my knee.

"I know, but I can't help but worry!" This woman was simply OOZING kindness. "Fletchy, you're hurt, too!" She walked out of my line of vision (I was still lying down).

"Fletchy? Who's he?" That didn't sound like a puppy name, or a cat name. Did Grace have a bird? I sat up, trying to see what she was talking about. And I gasped for the third time in like two minutes.

Grace was holding the BIGGEST bird I had ever seen. Up close, I mean. Eagles and herons and stuff were bigger than that thing by far. It still cleared six inches, and the majority of birds in the world are maybe four or five, I think. "Fletchy, your Fletchling, remember? You've had him since you were five," Grace said.

"Fletchy? What were they THINKING when they came up with that name?!" I exclaimed. Really, that's like naming a parrot Parry. Or a goldfish Gold. Well, about the last one, quite a few people name goldfish Goldie. "I dunno, maybe Katniss, or I got it! Rue," I decided. It looked so much like a Rue.

"Katniss? Where'd you hear that from?" Um, okay, the majority of people in America know about the Hunger Games and Katniss. A lot in other countries, too. "Is that one of your 'things' you and your friends come up with?"

"Um, yeah, I suppose," I mumbled. If Grace, the famous Rhyhorn racer, didn't know about Katniss Everdeen, I assumed that she didn't exist in this world. So I really WAS in Pokémon. That was right about when I promptly passed out.

-'s POV

I dozed in my little grotto that I had claimed for myself around six months ago. Its diameter was twice as long as my body length, and was completely circular, save for a small opening a little higher than my head.

Breakfast was already eaten, in the form of several berries. I find it immoral to kill in the morning; at least let the prey have a chance for survival instead of killing it before it's even fully awake.

So I had nothing to do before waiting for lunch, which was still several hours away. Life before I had acquired the grotto was at least interesting; I would have gone back to it, except for the fact that I had nearly died about once a day or so. Better a boring life than one where death awaited at every step.

Sleeping was always an option, but I had chosen it before so many times. So, I decided to go out and fully explore. When I first arrived in the small forest on the mountain, I had gone straight into finding a home, and the nearest food sources. This was the best one I had. So I stayed here, using my nearby berry patches and hunting spots, and never saw the rest of this place.

I cautiously crept out of my grotto, sneaking an occasional glance left or right so as to not get blindsided. You can never be too cautious.

Nearing the edge of my territory, I slowed down, my head whipping around at the rustling of a single leaf. Once, I heard footsteps coming from my right.

It wasn't footsteps, it was a Spoink aimlessly hopping around. It saw me and started meandering towards me. I ignored it, since it posed no threat to me, and continued on my way.

At some point, I saw a glint of blue among the green of the trees. I headed for it, curious as to what it may be, and saw an amazing sight.

Blue. Nothing but endless blue. It covered the entire bottom half of my field of vision; the sky took up the other. It rolled and pitched, and was sometimes capped with white, like clouds, only they disappeared within seconds. I was tempted to somehow get down off the mountain and see what it was, and started picking my way along the edge of the forest, looking for a way down.

That all stopped when I felt a tug on my spine.

River's POV

I woke up on the sofa. I was convinced it was all some sort of hallucination, and managed to convince myself to only play Pokémon in fifteen-minute chunks. I wondered how long I'd be able to hold up to that.

"Oh my, dear, are you feeling well?" Oh no. I was stuck here. I don't think hallucinations stay through unconsciousness. But I'm not an expert on that sort of stuff. "River, are you ill?"

"I don't think so," I muttered, but I didn't know. Maybe having your mind teleported to another world gave you a temporary fever or something. "Maybe it's just nerves."

"It could be, the move is today," Grace said. The move? Then I remembered. The whole plotline of Pokémon X/Y started after the main character moved to whatsitville.

"We're moving from where to where, again?" I asked. May as well know what this town's name was, and where I was right now.

"Did you hit your head when you tripped over Fletchy?" I glared at her, nodding my head; couldn't I rename Fletchy Rue already? "We're moving from here, in Ambrette Town, to Vaniville Town, over in the southeast." At least I knew where I was. And I had a great idea when remembering the Routes nearby.

In my playthrough of Pokémon X, I had a Pokémon who wasn't my original starter, but was my favorite of the team. And I caught it on Route 8, which was just north of here. "Can I take one last look at the town before we leave?" I asked, hopefully I could, and have my #1 wanted team member before my journey officially started.

"Yes, you have the time to," my 'mother' said, "We're leaving in two hours. How about you go back upstairs and get dressed?" I nodded, and went up to my (hideous) room.

"Glad you won't be here when we… oh, dangit," I muttered; what would be my new room looked almost completely identical to the one I was in now, if I remembered correctly. They probably already painted it. I walked over to my full-length mirror, and gawped.

I looked the exact way I wanted to in my world. My typically crazy frizzy hair was smooth and straight, and was a shade or two darker, which was perfect. I twirled a little, looking at myself.

After getting dressed, I went over to my Grumpiggy Bank (that's just a mouthful, plus it looked stupid) and grabbed what I thought was the right amount for a couple of Pokéballs. I was out the door before you could say "Bye, River! See you-". I never caught the end.

I went to the Pokémon Center, and bought myself three Pokéballs. The guy looked a little weirdly at me, probably thinking that I looked too young. But money was money, and there was some SERIOUS inflation here. 200 Pokédollars for ONE Pokéball? Really? I could probably buy one in my world for fifty.

After ranting in my head about the currency here, I made it to the top if the stairway to Route 8. And I stared. And stared. And stared some more.

It was a forest. On top of a mountain. How the heck that works, I have no idea. Those trees were tough. And the first Pokémon I saw, a Drifloon, nearly scared me out of my skin.

It looked DEAD. I know it's a Ghost type, and most of them are supposed to be dead(ish), but still. That thing was barely dragging itself along by its… I don't know what. It looked ready to collapse at any moment. I was incredibly glad it wasn't the partner I wanted, and walked away, staying to the edge of the woods.

Walking along a cliff with hidden creatures who could push me to my death on my other side… Not my brightest idea. But it's better than being slain IN the forest, and people have survived falling from higher than the cliff's height. I was contemplating this logic when I saw it.

It was picking its way along the cliff, towards me, but was intently staring over the cliff to the sea below. "Beautiful," I muttered, never taking my eyes off it as I grabbed a Pokéball and unshrunk it. Okay, maybe the inflation wasn't so horrible here. The shrinky/growy thing must cost a fortune to do.

I threw the Pokéball at it, watching as it bounced off its head, sucking it inside. I stared in awe; that looked awesome. It wobbled, once, twice…

-'s POV

I didn't see anything.

Not black, nor white, but simply nothing. It was the most beautiful and horrible sight I have ever seen. I wanted out.

I strained against whatever kept me trapped, tensing my muscles. I felt something, and was relieved; it was better than nothing. I pushed harder, and heard a cracking sound.

The thing that had caught me in the nightmare had broken, its two halves lay in front of me, one red, one white. A voice rang out from behind me.

"Dangit!" It was said so that it sounded like a curse word. I had heard plenty of those before. I turned, and there was a Human behind me.

It had long, straight, brown fur atop its head, and had colorful… what's the word… I should know this…. Clothes! It was wearing bright, colorful clothes. In its hand was what looked like my prison, only in one piece. It threw it at me with its… a sort of paw… a hand. The trap hit me and I was sucked in again.

Getting out this time was a little more difficult. My strength was being sapped, and I knew I'd have to have a small miracle to be able to escape another.

Lo and behold, the Human had a third trap. It threw it at me, and I couldn't break free.

River's POV

My last Pokéball wobbled thrice (three times for all you non-fancy shmacy spreaking people), and gave a little click. I put my fist in the air, silently cheering. I didn't want to die when some vicious Pokémon heard me from inside the nightmare of a forest.

I walked over to the Pokéball, picked it up, and had a good look at it. It didn't look anything different with my new partner inside it, except for a sort of… aura? I dunno, it's not like there was something similar to this in my world, was there?

"Welcome, Absol, to my team," I said.

Author's note:

And thus ends the epic first episode of I Even Miss the Pickles, you'll see why I called it that in the next update. So yes, ninety-nine percent of the random personal bits are true, but no actual names. I know, the first "capture" sucked, but I know you all wanted to see the portrayal of me do SOMETHING noteworthy in the first episode ('cause I'm psychic). Even if it sucked.

I do have Pokémon X, and my favorite Pokémon is Dione the Absol, currently Level 63, I think. Lol, perfect world, amirite? Don't worry, things will NOT be Hakuna Matata for long (Fun Fact, I'm planning to name Arc 6 Hakuna Matata, they're all song names/lyrics).

For all of you who were wondering, - means the Absol's name is undecided.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokémon.


	2. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta

Author's Note

I'm gonna put these at the top of the episode, except for either really important plot-twist related stuff or the first episode of an Arc, because I have the song lyric thing at the beginning.

A row of this: o-o-o-o-o-o- means that there is just a scene change, and not a POV change.

River will almost always be the first POV in an episode, I will mention who it is if it's not her. Absol gets named, the move happens, and my writing improves. Enjoy.

I was so giddy with 'oh-mai-gawd-I-caught-a-Pohk-eh-mans' happiness that I barely saw it coming.

It was the dark/psychic squid thing that drove me crazy when Dione (my Absol in X) train-grinding on Route 8 in my run of the game. I couldn't remember the name for the life of me.

The thing looked freakin' ADORABLE. With its huge puppy eyes and tiny mouth, it looked like something straight out of a Japanese cartoon. Which it sort of was. I was tempted to walk over and cuddle it and take it home and name it Mr. Wiggins (or Mrs., if it was a girl).

All thoughts of the future Mr. Wiggins ended when the thing yelled "Eenk!" and came flying at me. I ducked, and it sailed past my head.

"Eenk! Eenkaeh!" It screeched, and I remembered the name. Inkay. One of my least favorite Generation Six Pokémon. Sure, it was the cutest thing ever here, but in-game it was just a nuisance.

It came at me for another attack, and I didn't dodge in time. There was a feeling like I had just been slapped by myself, even though my hands had been clenched in fists at my side. The name of the move popped into my head, probably from the tons of times I mentally said 'God dangit' when an Inkay used it. Foul Play.

Myself hurt. A LOT. Normally I can hide pain rather easily (smashing my hand in an unusually thick bathroom stall door at McDonalds'), but ten seconds later, I was still holding my cheek and muttering swear words under my breath. Mr. Wiggins (as I would now always know Inkay as forever) patiently waited for me to stagger to my feet before attacking again, like a true gentleman.

As it swooped down on me, I remembered (because I'm an idiot that way) that I had a perfectly good Absol (who I still had to nickname) waiting in my pocket. Reaching for it, I forgot about Mr. Wiggins and was self-slapped again.

Thankfully, I had turned my head to look in my pocket to look for my Absol's Pokéball (looking back, what good would that do? My hand isn't see-through), so the Foul Play hit me in the skull, which wasn't so bad. It still smarted, though.

"Go! Whatever I'll name you later!" I yelled, tossing the Pokéball up in the air. Out blossomed my Absol, with just as much Pokéswag (put that in the next dictionary, Britannica) as you could get. I was too busy staring at it to notice its Pokéball fly back towards me and whack me in the forehead. "Ow! Use Bite!" All Absol knew that, right?

Thankfully, mine did, and it began to chow down on Mr. Wiggins's head-cap-thingy. It grabbed the hanging thing on it, and with a sickening, well, not-so-sickening CLACK, severed it off.

For all you squeamish people who do not deserve Gryffindor (Harry Potter nerd and proud of it), skip the next paragraph.

My Absol held the hanging thing in its jaws, staring at me expectantly (I don't know what it was waiting for), while a bluish liquid poured out of both that and Mr. Wiggins's stump of a left-side-of-a-hat-hangy-thingy. Mr. Wiggins let loose with the most bloodcurdling shriek ever, and it sounded like a rabbit's death cry (which I've heard sounds like a baby screaming; I've never killed a rabbit), but ten times more adorable and 'oh-my-god-who-did-that-I-will-rip-them-to-shreds (hypocrite, much?)'. I couldn't stand the two, and lost whatever was in my stomach (did I ever eat here yet?), but there was something.

It was then when I realized this, and said it out loud. "Oh my GOD. This is violent. Can I just use my Absol for contests or something else where he probably won't lose a limb?" I have no idea who would answer me, maybe the Pokémon god of the region (Xerneas? Or is Arceus the planetary god or something?). Whatever the case, I turned around and began to walk away.

-'s POV

I held the Inkay's tentacle-like object in my mouth, waiting for approval. Instead, the weak Human who caught me turned and brought up its own breakfast. Speaking of food, I still haven't had lunch. And since the Inkay won't need it anymore, I decided to put his chewed-off appendage to good use.

One meal later, I saw the Human had left. I currently disliked it, but was obligated to follow, since it caught me. I found the scent trail, and followed after it. Some while later, I found it, sitting on a… What is the word that Humans use, again? Staircase. That's it.

I walked up and sat beside it, laying my head on its lap. My horn can not only feel natural disasters, but emotional ones as well.

"Hey, Absol… Oh, yeah. I still have to name you," the Human said, smiling gratefully through tears. I had no idea why it was upset, I could only tell if something WAS upset. "But, I have to know, are you a girl, or a boy?"

"I am a female," I said, waiting for it to respond. When it looked at me, confused, I realized that it couldn't speak the universal Pokémon language. But we could understand theirs. I didn't understand it, and didn't feel like finding out why right now.

"I have an idea," the Human said, "stand up when I say your correct gender. Male." I didn't move, and after about five seconds it got the idea. "Female," it said, and I stood up, thankful to have found some (albeit a slow) method of communication, and it would only work with yes or no questions, or one with a set amount of answers. But it was better than nothing.

The Human sat, considering names, and eventually gave me one: "Epsilon." I had no idea what that meant, and it laughed at my face of confusion. At least it understood that. "The… fifth? Letter of the Ancient Greek alphabet. I don't know why, but it came to mind."

I shrugged, there were probably worse names. I put my paw on its… knee, to indicate that I wanted to know its name. After a moment, it understood. "Oh, I'm… River. A girl." At least I knew the Human…. River's, gender. I nodded and sat down, and River pulled out her trap, which brought me back to the dream-nightmare.

River's POV

After the 'getting to know you' session, I had to put Epsilon back in her Pokéball. I couldn't let Grace know about her. And then it hit me.

I considered Grace as my mom now. Even though I've only known her for about half an hour, plus however long I was unconscious, I thought of her as my mother. It was my own form of coping with the grief of losing my own family.

That's when I lost it. I sat there, crying my eyes out, mourning the fact that I would probably never see my family again. I was stuck here. Trapped. I would never walk back into my own home, go to my own school, heck, even shop in the same stores. I had seen all my friends for the last time.

An hour later, with no tears left, I headed to my new, and soon to be old, home.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

I walked into the house, and Grace came bustling over. "Oh, dear, you've been crying! Is anything wrong?"

"I'm just going to miss this place," I lied, "but I'm famished. Anything to eat?"

"Yes! We have Iapapa Berries, Chesto Berries, Mago Berries…" she continued with a long list of berries that I vaguely remembered from the Pokémon games. Where were the apples? The bananas? The grapes? I eventually had to pick one, so I just went with one of the random berries from her recital.

"Persim Berry, please," I said, having no idea whether it was good or not. Grace started poking through a refrigerator that had tons of alien-looking berries in it. She pulled out a peach-colored berry, sliced it into rough eighths, put the slices on a plate, and handed the plate to me. I sat down at the table and poked it. It felt squichy.

I steeled myself for it. "Over the teeth and past the gums, look out stomach, here it comes," I muttered to myself, it went like that, right? I shrugged off the thought as I picked up a slice, and put it in my mouth.

You know how in Minecraft, when you drink a Speed potion, the screen zooms out a little bit? The berry made something like that happen to my vision. Everything seemed clearer, and brighter, and I thought I was drunk.

"Um… Mom?" See, I was even calling Grace my mom, that was how drunk I was. Until she said "honey, Persim berries cure confusion in Pokémon, so everything seems a bit clearer to you." Okay, so not drunk? But… I called Grace my mom, even though she isn't. Maybe post-traumatic stress disorder, or the one where you think someone who really isn't your parent is, came into play at some point.

I pushed my plate away from me, not hungry anymore. I would have killed for a cheeseburger with a Coke. The Coke could have been diet. The cheeseburger could have had lettuce, or tomato, or even pickles (I really did hate pickles) on it. I was so homesick, even the pickles couldn't have bothered me.

- (not Epsilon)'s POV

After a long time in the lab, about a week longer than normal, it was good to finally get to see the outside. I went with the other two Pokémon in my set (that's what they called us, anyways), out the door, and into a yard.

"Be good, and don't accidentally injure each other. You don't know your own strength," the scientist said as he closed the door. I scoffed, of course I knew my own strength! I was the one with the elemental powers, not him.

The more idiotic of the other two went and tried to ride a seesaw with only one person. The other went over to a shady corner and napped. After maybe five minutes of the pathetic attempts of the idiotic one, I felt pity for him, and decided to join him.

"Thank you, thank you! Now we can play together!" he said. I grinned; on the inside I was already regretting it. We played on the seesaw, one of us falling off occasionally. By the end, we were both so wracked with laughter that we couldn't climb back on the seats, and instead lay rolling around in the grass. It was fun, I'll admit it.

The other opened up one eye and regarded us. It soon closed as its owner drifted back to sleep. I waited, seeing if he would finally get up and join us, but he stayed there. "Lazy," I muttered, too low for anyone to hear.

The more idiotic one then started going down the slide, which was twice as tall as he was. Not that high, considering he was quite short at the moment. Then again, we all were, at least until we evolved. I couldn't wait for it. I'd dreamt of my trainer almost every night since I heard we'd be getting one soon.

Last night he was a boy, and was tall and thin, but not too much so. His hair was black and just too long to be considered a buzz cut. He had emerald eyes, and the toothiest grin I had ever seen. But I had never seen too many grins in my lifetime, what with growing up in a laboratory and all. He wore a red T-shirt and ripped blue jeans that were dirty and faded. He had chosen me instantly, which made me like him all the more.

The dream fast-forwarded to when I had evolved into my final stage, and we were facing the Champion. All our other Pokémon were down, but that didn't matter; I was the strongest by far. The Champion also had one Pokémon left, and he was weak. The trainer told me to attack, and just before I could, I woke up.

"Aaaaargh!" Came a nearby shriek, snapping me out of my daydream; the one I was playing with had flown off the swing set and was soaring through the air. After a spectacular faceplant, he got up, dusting himself off. I whistled, that had to hurt. Like, a LOT. I was surprised he hadn't gotten a concussion, or worse.

"You okay? That had to have hurt," I asked. He replied with his usual bubbly "whee! That was fun! Can I do it again?!" I shrugged and left him to his antics, and wandered around until a scientist told us to come back inside.

We were taken to a room with a big wooden desk in the middle. The head scientist, a man with a French accent, sat in it.

"Tomorrow, we are going to take you to Aquacorde Town, where you will meet your new trainers. Until then, we ask you to reside in your Pokéballs," he said. I shrugged, I had nothing wrong with Pokéballs. That's what happens when you're captured in one roughly five minutes after hatching.

The Professor, as everyone called him, pulled out three Pokéballs and returned us. I sat in the nothingness, dreaming about my new trainer.

River's POV

The man came with several Kadabra and an Alakazam, the last of which was just taller than me. I stood for a full thirty seconds, gawping, until Grace told me to go upstairs and pack my things.

I did, unceremoniously stuffing everything in the room into a sack. A second sack held the TV, and the third held my bean bag chair. My bed and desk would come later.

Lugging it all down the stairs, I contemplated a situation that popped up in my head. Epsilon was a Dark type, so Psychic moves had no effect on her. Would she not be teleported when I did? I had her (shrunken) Pokéball hidden in my sock, and I couldn't exactly ask her, because I had just walked back into the living room.

"Here you go," I grunted, dropping it all in front of the couch. The man (I think he was one of the Psychics from the random Routes, he looked like it) nodded to one of his Kadabra, who took the bag and vanished. "Is it like Apparating?" I asked, facepalming myself a moment later.

"Apparating? What's that?" Grace asked. Using my epic storytelling skills (mostly involving making children's stories (Esperanza Rising) much more amusing, violent, and High School humor oriented), I made a tale up, not trusting to meet the Psychic's eyes, "I read about it in a fantasy story. It apparently feels like being compressed into a tiny tube."

"No," the Psychic, who I dubbed Sayid (the first one you met in-game, I think) laughed. "You just have a sense of weightlessness for a moment." I gulped, since I had read a story which described the horrors of zero-G before I came here.

"Okay, River, can you go with the Alakazam and take your things into your room? The Smeargle in there should be just finishing by now. We'll be arriving later," said Grace. I nodded, and walked over to the Alakazam (dubbed Gene) who put his hand-paw thing on my shoulder, and with a faint tingling sensation, we teleported away.

The bulge in my sock did not go away, so I supposed that Epsilon had come along for the ride. I couldn't see anything, though, but a giant rainbow thing, like the part where you go through the rainbow tube in Mario Kart Wii, Rainbow Road. But more rainbow-y.

We landed, me with a stumble, in a living room almost identical to the one in Ambrette Town, minus the lack of furniture. The walls were the same, the floor was the same, heck, even the ceiling lamp was the same.

I grabbed the sacks that were laying nearby, gave Gene a nod goodbye, and proceede to drag them up the stairs. Very slowly. Taking fourteen attempts.

After making it to my room, I took out the beanbag chair, tossed it in a corner, set the TV up against the wall opposite the door, and placed the other various items in their respective positions. The Smeargle was indeed finishing his job, adding small touches of paint to places that needed it. Five-ish minutes after I arrived, he added the last bit of paint to a spot in the corner and left. I reached into my sock, grabbed my Pokéball, and released Epsilon.

Epsilon's POV

I was spared from the nothingness of the dream/nightmare-world when I was let out of the trap. I looked around, trying to make out my surroundings.

"Hi, Epsilon," came the Human's voice. I turned, and saw her smiling face (which looked kind of ridiculous) sitting on the ground. "Okay, Grace doesn't know I have you, since this is kind of illegal, but I hope you're cool with these kind of things." Of course I was. I was cool with anything. Save fire.

To communicate this, I shrugged. River seemed to understand this , and continued: "So, soon, maybe tomorrow, or the next day, I dunno, but soon, our journey will officially begin. We'll get an actual starter Pokémon. Chespin, Fennekin, or Froakie, I think. And we can travel and stuff. So, yeah," she finished lamely. It sounded good, except for the part where we got another Pokémon. I prefer to work alone.

We sat around, not really having anything to do, until someone started walking up the stairs, and I was returned into my trap.

River's POV

"Hey, honey, it's getting late, you may want to go to bed." Grace walked into my room for the umpteenth time, presumably to make sure that everything was in order. Thankfully, my TV tech skills allowed me to hook up the TV and WiiU in about an hour of poking around. Thank God the outlets are the same, at least.

"Fine, Mom," I sighed. I changed into my Skitty-themed (I was going to KILL whoever was me before me) pajamas, and brushed my teeth with a (barf) Igglybuff toothbrush. The bad and desk had come over, so I had a place to sleep, but before I completely tucked in, I went downstairs to Grace.

She was reading a book on the couch, so I hated to disturb her, but I had to find out. "Hey, Grace, when will I get to go on my own Pokémon journey?" Grace jumped a little; shewas VERY focused on her book, but she replied.

"In fact, tomorrow Professor Sycamore will give you and a couple other local children the starter Pokémon for Kalos," Grace said, and… was that a blush I saw? I know almost everyone knows that Sycamore x Grace is basically a canon ship, but I felt like a detective, noticing that. I thanked her and went to bed.

'Even the pickles,' I thought just as I fell asleep, 'I even miss the pickles.'

Author's Note:

Yep, the title. I suck at them. Next up will be the actual journey beginning, and the first person to correctly guess the starter River will choose/had a POV in a comment will be PM'd by me, and will have the right to pick the last Pokémon to join the team (I can't decide what it should be) BUT, I get to decide the name and gender. P.S. PM me if you win, it's gotta be a surprise.


	3. Vikings and Mages

Author's Note:

Nobody answered? Awww now I have to pick a random Pokémon using not completely legit methods...

I woke up, hoping that I would finally be back home. I opened my eyes, sat up, and saw pink walls. Nope. Still in Pokéland.

You can stick Poké- in front of anything, and it becomes Pokémon related. Just how you can make anything a prejudicial name by putting –ist at the end of one. Pokéist. Someone who's prejudiced against Pokémon. They need a team like that. One who tries to kill all but a few types of Pokémon. "Generation Seven, Gamefreak!" I yelled.

I sat up, and walked over to the mirror. As I observed my reflection, I realized. I didn't need glasses.

In my world, I had crappy vision. Nearsighted. I wasn't blind, mind you, I just couldn't see very well. So I had black plastic-framed glasses that I wore constantly. Here, I didn't need them, and I could see my stereotypical watery blue eyes.

I changed into the usual first-ever outfit thing, and tugged at the skirt's hem. I HATE skirts. Even more than pickles, and the fact that (skip to the next paragraph if you haven't finished Harry Potter) Fred Weasley died in HPaTDH. George should've.

I practically flew down the stairs on my way to get my starter. I was stopped by Grace, who basically crushed me in a hug, all the while sobbing mushy stuff like "I'm going to miss you! My baby, you've gotten so old! Be sure to call! I'll watch Fletchy for you!" I glared at her for the last one; his/her name was now RUE. But it was still touching, and made me think of home. I bottled up my tears, and tried to make it long enough to get out the door. Thankfully, I managed to escape with a "Mom, you're crushing me!" that made her let me go. I walked out, sat on the front step, and broke down. I brought out Epsilon, who comforted me as I sobbed (Best. Doom Death Dog. Ever).

"Um, you're the new neighbor, right? Hi." A voice came from in front of me; I raised my head and saw a tall, skinny boy with long dark hair. "Mason?" I asked hopefully.

Okay, you all are probably wondering who the heck Mason is. Mason was my neighbor, who was my best friend for a time. We'd play Pokémon Colusseum, where I'd lose almost all the time, but I'd still be happy. I played through Platinum that way, ALMOST beating it (I eventually gave up (what, I was in elementary school, and had a short attention span)), made it to the last gym of SoulSilver (quit for same reasons), and started Pokémon Black. He moved away in the spring, and I never really talked to him again. So don't blame me, I was feeling nostalgic and sentimental and stuff.

"Um, no. My name's Calem, and I'm your new neighbor. We're going to get our Pokémon from Professor Sycamore." He held out his hand to help me up. I took it, grateful, and returned Epsilon. "We have our own little hangout in Aquacorde Town. The Pokémon arrived not long ago, and Shauna, you, and I are going to get one."

"Cool. So, who gets first dibs?" Yep, total swag. He was cute, anyone would be awkward. Me, especially. "I know what I want, but you could go first, and Shauna, if you two want." I consider myself selfless. I would probably end up taking a Magikarp with an Everstone superglued to it if it meant that the others would get something good.

"We'll figure it out." We were walking along Route 1. Romantic, in my opinion. No Pokémon who try to flay you alive here. I smiled, thinking of the peace in the Pokémon games. And the violence here.

And strolling, hand in hand, is how we ran into the gang. A five year old in a teenager's body, a nerd (who I actually liked the most(besides Calem)), and a guy who can't dance, so he forces Pokémon to do it for him. The city of misfit Humans.

"Hey, hey, hey Calem! You got her, do you got her?!" The girl who's having a permanent sugar rush is Shauna. Yay.

"Yes, I have her," Calem replied, sounding a little exasperated. Hey, we have something in common. Shauna drives us both insane already.

"Cool! Can she dance? Is she good?" Tierno. Woohoo.

"I don't know, Tierno, but I hope she is." Yep. Definitely tiring. Shauna/Tierno United 2, River/Calem United 0.

"Nice." Trevor has officially become my second favorite gang member, very closely behind Calem. Calem sighed in relief, and I grinned.

"So, do you guys have the Pokémon?" Calem, cutting right to the chase. Straightforward. I like it.

"Yep, we do, but we need to know YOUR name, mystery lady!" Please, PLEASE something either knock her out cold or sever her vocal cords. I'm happy with either.

"River. And NO. NICKNAMES. River can BE a nickname if you want, just NO. NICKNAMES." I had given up on nicknaming myself in X, just using my regular name as it.

"Okay, River can be your nickname! So, here are the Pokémon," Shauna said, pulling out a white box, "from left to right, they are Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie." She gave the box a little shake, and I heard the sound of Pokéballs rolling around. "Oh…"

"Whatever," Calem said, walking up to the box, "it's not that big of a deal." Yes, it was, and he knew it; his fists were clenched at his sides, and were slightly shaking. "We just pick one and hope for the best.

"Okay!" squealed Shauna. I shrugged, walked forwards, and stuck my hand in the box.

I felt each of the Pokéballs, hoping for a difference in texture, or something. Instead, there was a sort of aura on them, like Epsilon's. One felt cool, and I swear I heard the sounds of flowing water in the background; Froakie. Another felt warm, and had a crackly fire-y sound about it; Fennekin. The last one felt like… nothing. Nothing but the feeling that change will come in time, you just need patience, like a plant growing; Chespin.

I grabbed one and pulled it out; Calem and Shauna were poking around in it. Eventually, Calem gave up and grabbed one, which left the last one for Shauna.

"EEEEEE! Now we have our Pokémon! Let's battle!" Shauna, jumping the gun before it's even made. Calem and I looked at each other, our eyes both saying 'no. Please no.'

"Oh, yeah, River, you need a Pokédex!" Trevor exclaimed, saving my hide. I walked over, grabbing it, and peered at it, holding it at different angles. "You can register the Pokémon you've caught in it, and it has a built-in Holocaster."

"It does, huh," I muttered, still looking for the on button. After ten more seconds of searching, I gave up, lost all my pride, and asked a guy who's shorter than me a question. "How do you turn this thing on?"

"Right here." Trevor showed me a button, hidden on the flip hinge thingy. How is that efficient? It's basically invisible on the thing. And it's black colored on the black stripe. Brilliant.

"Thanks." I smiled, which shocked me. I am only allowed to have a crush on ONE of the gang members, no love triangles!

"Oh, yeah, and this is from Professor Sycamore to your mom. Can you deliver it?" Trevor held out said letter in his hand, so I took it. I suspected that I knew what it contained, so I immediately grabbed Calem's forearm and dragged him back to Route 1, yelling "Bye!" as we went.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

We sheltered just off the Route, hidden behind a shrub. Calem looked a little bit mad at me, so I had to explain.

"Okay, I THINK Professor Sycamore and Grace are in love," I said, "and we should find out once and for all."

"I understand that, but why do you need me?"

"For the lulz. It'll be funnier with two. Now let me compose my romantic voice." I coughed, getting into character. I opened the envelope, and began to read, in a beautiful French accent:

_Dear Grace,_

_I've been thinking about you a lot lately. Your eyes, your smile, everything about you. And it's all beautiful._

_I think that you are simply amazing, and we should get to know each other better. Maybe over dinner. My treat._

_HoloCast me: 5577738882_

_Love,_

_Professor Sycamore_

Of course, the moment I finished the letter, we both broke up in laughter. We were holding our sides and wheezing. Like, Weezing had nothing on us for our crappy breathing.

"You… have… the… best… French… accent… ever…" Aw, Calem's so sweet. I bet like all the French people in France have better accents than me. But it was nice.

I managed to pull myself together. "How about we have ourselves a little wager. The strongest trainer after a month gets a dinner-their choice-that has to be paid for by the weaker one."

"Deal." Calem and I shook on it. Crap. I need to grab my money before I leave. Glad to remember that. "Hey, do you wanna see our starters now?" He held out his Pokéball. I swallowed.

"Calem… will you promise not to kill me when I say this?" He nodded, looking suspicious. "The Pokémon in here," I held up my Pokéball, "isn't my first Pokémon. Yesterday, before we moved, I caught a different starter," I held up Epsilon's Pokéball. "I think it's legal now, but it wasn't twenty-four hours ago."

As I expected Calem to go all 'I-can-never-be-your-friend-again-you-criminal' on me, but instead, in what was probably the sweetest, kindest, nicest move ever, he shrugged. And because I have that 'I-secretly-have-a-crush-on-you-but-I-hide-it-with-swag' swag, I immediately squeal and tackle him in the biggest bear hug ever.

"Ack-get-offa-me!" I let go of Calem, who takes several deep breaths to calm himself. Grinning like an idiot, I lean back and say "so, do you wanna see Epsilon and my… whatever this is?"

"Sure," Calem replied with a shrug. I want his secret crush swag so badly. Grabbing Epsilon's Pokéball, I tossed it up in the air.

**Epsilon's POV**

I came out of the trap again to see River and another Human. It was staring intently at me, as if I was a Ratatta, oblivious to the shadow slowly creeping up behind it.

"Calem, meet Epsilon, Epsilon, Calem, who's a boy." So females had long head-fur, and males had shorter. Just an assumption, but it was the biggest one I noticed.

"Cool. So, this is your starter?" The Human called Calem asked.

"More or less," River shrugged, "I still have my mystery Pokémon." Oh. I had forgotten about the other Pokémon. The one who would take my place. I felt myself get… angry? Sad? I didn't like that Pokémon, and yet I wanted to be that Pokémon. I couldn't place my claw on the name, but I knew it…

"So, since you showed me your starter first, now I get to show my starter." Calem took out a trap and tossed it into the air. In a shower of silvery mist, out came a Chespin.

Looking around, the Chespin asked "are you my trainer?" to just about everything BUT his trainer. Heck, he even asked a bush. And a tree. Several different parts of the packed earthen path got the question as well.

"Hey, kid," I said, tapping the Chespin on the shoulder with my claw, "your trainer's the kid with the dark hair." I used my claw as a general pointer, and the Chespin followed it as if it led directly to his trainer (it didn't), almost right past his trainer. Thankfully, Calem grabbed him before he could concuss himself on a tree or something.

"Woah, little guy, I still have to name you and everything," Calem laughed. He sat and thought for what felt like forever, eventually coming up with a suitable name, or so he thought, with "Alo". Don't question it; I never do.

"Alo?! That sounds like a medicine which somehow causes kidney failure." River said when she heard the name. "Olaf, maybe. They're practically the same thing, minus the 'f' and the letter reversal." True that. But I had no idea what an 'f' was, and only a vague idea as to what a kidney is.

"Ugh, fine. Olaf it is. Where did the name Olaf come from anyways?" Calem asked. River began talking about some boring history and drew in the dirt with a nearby stick. I tuned them out and focused on the newly named Olaf, who was busy having what looked like a staring contest with a flower.

"Hi, kid," I said, creeping up on him like a shadow; the only Pokémon better at sneaking than us Dark types are the Ghosts, but they're all crazy anyways. Olaf jumped and clung to the nearest tree branch, hanging on for dear life, shrieking "Aaaargh! What was that for, jerk?!"

"First of all, thanks for the compliment, same to you," I said. Olaf looked more confused than usual, not knowing that I'd just insulted him back, "and second of all, you're gonna need to shape up, or you'll be shipped out to the Box."

"Box? I like boxes, that's how I came here with my… My friends! Where are they? Are they with good people? What's the Box?"

"The Box is where they take the bad Pokémon who don't listen to their trainers. They're left there forever and ever and they never come out again," I said, using a hint of Mean Look to scare it into him. We are VERY good at scary stories. And Olaf knew it. He was quaking in his two-toed feet, and after a moment went running back to Calem, crying all the while. However, he was stopped by an invisible force. Mean Look also prevents Pokémon from escaping, so they can hear more of the stories.

'Snap out of it, me,' I told myself; cruelty is only funny for so long. I relinquished Mean Look's hold, and let Olaf make it all the way to Calem. Naturally, the Pokémon pointed at me when Calem asked "what's wrong?" and I got my own form of Mean Look from the two. River, however, was just looking at me with disappointment, and it made me feel even worse about myself.

"Let's see which Pokémon I got," River said to try to ease the tension, which was so thick you could cut it with my horn. She dug around in her pocket for a moment, pulling out a Pokéball similar to my own, and released the Pokémon inside.

Vwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvw(my different POV changer)

**?'s POV**

I came out of the Pokéball, eagerly awaiting the trainer of my dreams. I saw him, tall and skinny, but not too much so, with black hair, too long to be considered a buzz cut, and dark grey eyes. Not perfect, but it's close enough. I grinned and started heading towards him.

"Woah, woah, Fennekin! I'm not your trainer!" And my dreams shattered. I stared at him, daring him to repeat it, my orange eyes glaring. And shamelessly, he did. "River over there is your trainer," he said, pointing to a girl with long dark brown hair, who had a huge grin on her face.

"Type advantage, Calem. Start saving your pennies," she said with a smirk. I immediately disliked her. She was too… sarcastic. Joking. We couldn't win the Championship with someone too distracted to be serious once in a while! "Now, Fennekin, do you want a name?" Of course I did. I didn't want to be known as 'the fox thing' for the rest of my life. "Any ideas?" Could I even suggest one? She wouldn't understand it. I shrugged, and River took the hint.

"Hmmm… maybe I could keep with the Greek letter names…" she mused. "How about… Delta? Beta? Alpha? No, not Alpha, too much 'I love you the best so I named you #1'-ness. Gamma? No, Gamma sucks. Perhaps…" and on she went. I ignored her and walked over to the Absol, who was sitting around, being lazy.

"Hi, Absol," I said nervously.

"Name's Epsilon. Do you have one yet?" She barely glanced at me. I disliked her as well. Too lazy. I shook my head no and walked over to the Chespin.

"OhmygoshFennekin! Wehavetrainersandthey'refriendsandIgotanameit'sOlaf." Is it just me, or did he get even more hyper since we left the lab? And he has a name, if I heard him correctly. Olaf. It actually sounds perfect for him, if I do say so myself. When he's a Chesnaught, it will probably be different.

River waved her hand, beckoning me over to her. I walked over and sat down in front of her. She said "Fennekin, I have a name for you. Actually, two names. You pick one." So I got to choose my own name? I decided to dislike River a little less. I nodded for her to continue.

"For the Greek letter theme, we have Theta, and for the other Greek name, we have Selene. Ancient Greek moon goddess. The sun god was a dude. Wait, you're a girl, right?" I nodded; of course I was! Like I'd be a boy when I evolved into a Delphox.

"So Theta, or… wait, I don't like Selene. Hestia. Greek goddess of the hearth, which is basically fire. No, Circe is the goddess of magic, well, she's a sorceress, and Hecate is the ACTUAL goddess of magic. You can choose between Theta and Hecate, Fennekin." Good thing she told me my choices at the end. I would have had no idea which one to choose. But how to communicate the one I wanted? River realized this too: "Nod if you like Theta." Nothing. "Nod if you like Hecate, then." I nodded. I would be a sort of magician when I evolved, so this would basically be naming my future. "Hecate it is," River announced, "now I just have to register you and Epsilon in the Pokédex. I have no idea how to do it. Calem, can you help?" Calem took the Pokédex and started fiddling with it. I wandered around, observing the Route.

The primary feature was the large path of packed dirt running down the middle. Not much else besides forest. Very interesting. I began wandering around, shooting the occasional Ember at nearby shrubs. Sadly, the majority of them didn't catch fire. One particularly dry-looking bush started smoking, and caught aflame. I grinned, proud of myself. Olaf, in turn, started screeching and batting at the flames. "Tree-hugger," I muttered; all Grass types, as far as I knew, were.

Calem, immediately noticing Olaf's panic attack, dropped the Pokédex and rushed over to the bush. He glared at me when Olaf started blubbering and pointing his claw in my direction. The Absol, Epsilon, came creeping up behind me and made me jump; she said "I've already made that happen. Don't let it get to you." I wondered who she belonged to, and asked her. "I'm the girl's," she said, and I gasped. First day on a journey and I already had competition? I'd have to get, like, ten times stronger if I was to be the one who defeated the Champion. I immediately resolved to train as hard as I could, which began with a "can we battle?" to Epsilon.

Surprisingly, she shrugged. "Sure, I have nothing better to do, anyways." The Absol walked up to River, who was still poking around with the Pokédex, nudged her with her shoulder, and gestured to us with her paw. After a moment, River got the idea. "You two want to battle?" We nodded, eager. "I'll ask Calem to take one of you guys," she said. She stood up and walked over to Calem, who was still comforting Olaf, and told him the situation. He reluctantly agreed, and said that "I'll take Hecate." Take me?! I need to prove myself to my trainer! This first battle will show her my strength! I need this!

In my rage, I kind of… flipped out. Accidentally burned down a couple trees, and set fire to Olaf's hoodie. Needless to say, there was no battle after Epsilon knocked me out cold with a paw to the back of the head. I missed what happened afterwards, mostly due to being unconscious and pulled back into my Pokeball.

vwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvvwvwvwvvwvwvwvwvwvwvvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvvwvwvwvwvwvwvvwvwvwvwvwvvwvwvwvwvwvwvvw

Author's Note:

Longest episode yet. Sorry for the short, sucky ending, but I had to cut it off before it reached 5k words (3.5k right now). Hecate is taken after Jackie the Delphox, level 62. New format next episode, you'll find out why then. So follow. And comment. And other stuff.


	4. Pikachu, I am Your Father

Author's Note:

I've just posted Episode 1 (I need backup episodes, just in case), and the website hates my writing format. I have decided to write from one POV the whole episode. They may be shorter, but it will be MUCH easier to follow.

The Arc is winding down, and we will soon move on to Arc 2, yay! Probably not for another episode or two, and I know that it seems short, but we're doing 2-3k words an episode, that's about 15k words by the end. So stop wasting words, me, and get to the story! (slaps myself)

**River's POV**

Okay, my Fennekin has a heart attack when anything goes wrong, my best friend/crush hates my team (which I should name soon), and my Absol… well, didn't really do anything noteworthy yet. Great time, I know.

"Erm, I'm going to deliver this to my mom now…" I said, scratching the back of my neck sheepishly, holding the envelope in my other hand. Calem shrugged, took Olaf the PokéViking, and walked back down the path to Aquacorde Town. I patted Epsilon on the shoulder, and gestured for us to walk the other way, to Vaniville Town.

As we walked, I considered taking Hecate back out of her Pokéball. But I had no idea whether she'd be conscious when she came out or not, or if she'd have another spontaneous combusting episode. And frankly, I was just happy to hang out with Epsilon without any Mr. Wigginses or Olafs or emotional flashback… oh, crap.

Tears came to my eyes as I remembered my breakdowns again. I mentally told myself to not think about them anymore, which naturally made them that much harder to forget. I sat down, trying to stop the tears before I went back to Grace's house, and Epsilon, like the best companion doom death dog ever, sat with me and allowed me to pet her, avoiding the sword/scythe face blade thing.

Maybe ten minutes later, when all that remained was some minor eye puffiness, I stood up and headed back on my way. I reached the wall gate entrance to Vaniville Town, and returned Epsilon, since Mom had no idea she was mine. After that, I brought out Hecate's Pokéball, and released the ticking fiery time bomb.

Who was unconscious. Out cold, laying on the stone walkway. I picked her up, moved her to the edge of the sidewalk, and sat down beside her. After a minute or so, Hecate began to stir. I softly called her name, and she woke up.

"Okay, Hecate, I'm going to lay down some ground rules for Team… what should I name the team? How about something Greco-Roman related? Like, I dunno, Team Olympus? Team Athens? Team… Whatever is significant in Rome that would make an awesome-sounding Team name?"

I was going off-topic, and Hecate knew it. She tried to go back to sleep. Thankfully, I caught her before she could and she sat up, glaring at me. "Okay. No spasmic flame-throwing. Got it?" Hecate nodded reluctantly, at least we could agree on something. "You will respect any and all other members of Team Whatever I call it." Another nod. I smiled; this was going better than expected. "And… um… have a nice day!" All of a sudden, I broke out laughing. Probably because I sounded like a way too bubbly waitress. Or banker. Or whoever said that when their client/customer left.

Hecate seemed cool (if Fire types can be cool) about it, and we both walked over to Grace's house. I pushed the doorbell, and out came "Pika!"

This led me to collapse onto my knees, on the doorstep, raise my shaking fists in the air, and stage-whisper "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" just like the newly-suited Darth Vader when he realized that Padme died… I just remembered; I never did finish the Star Wars saga.

Of course, at this moment, Grace happened to open the door and see my dramatic performance. "What's going on, River?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing, besides the fact that Pikachu is treated as an immortal god here too!" I replied, and Grace looked at me weirdly. Probably because she was the only one in Kalos who actually had a Pikachu doorbell.

"Pikachu? Why, they get no treatment different from any other Pokémon! But, I heard in Luminose City you can only make Pikachu-themed PR videos…" she mused. I groaned, since I would never escape the PikaMania that was spreading the franchise/world. I ignored that for the time being and handed over the letter from Professor Sycamore while saying "hey, Mom! I got my first Pokémon!" as I was holding up Hecate, who thankfully did not set anything aflame. As all moms are required to do when something exciting happens to their child/children, she gave the most earsplitting squeal on whatever they called this planet. Was it still technically Earth?

"Oh, my goodness! Honey! You got your first Pokémon! A Fennekin! Shame it couldn't have been a Rhyhorn, but still! I'm so proud of you!" She hadn't even finished her last sentence before crushing me in a hug so tightly that an Onix laying on me would have been less pressure on my chest. After numerous 'ack'-ing sounds, Mom got the hint and released me, and I stepped back a little, holding my chest and gasping for breath.

Grace was still gawking at Hecate, who was being the nicest, sweetest, most adorable thing ever besides Mr. Wiggins. Why couldn't she be that way with me!? I was somewhat tempted to leave her with Grace and go on with only Epsilon. But I was more patient than that, and decided to keep Hecate. Speaking of that, I handed Mom the Pokédex, and asked if she could show me how to register my Pokémon in them, and she demonstrated.

Apparently, there's a little camera scanner thingy on the back of it, like a cell phone camera. It could scan any Pokémon you stuck in front of it, and it would tell you the name, species, height, weight, level, stats, IVs, EVs, QVs (I have no idea what they do, all I saw was a crap ton of decimal places), gender, HP, moveset, strengths, weaknesses, and the date and time registered. Hecate was apparently 1' 3.5", weighed 19.8 pounds, and was at Level 5. I personally don't care that much about stats and IVs and EVs, I normally focus on spam attacking in my playthroughs. IVs and EVs just make it into a scientific bundle of nerdism.

Hecate was a girl (as I already knew), was strong against Grass, Ice, Bug, and Steel, was weak to Water, Ground, and Rock. She knew the moves Scratch, Leer, and Ember (the last of which was already demonstrated to me). I was happy, and I could register Epsilon and legally own her without the cops and I having a high speed chase while riding levitating Lapras down the streets.

"Goodbye, honey!" said Grace, snapping me out of my Lapras chase fantasy. I shook my head a little to clear the remnants of it, and smiled. "I'll miss you, Mom."

After an emotional hug, I set off to the gateway to Route 1, with Hecate in my arms. Halfway there, Grace called me back and gave me my Town Map. It was touchscreen, and semi-holographic, and it. Looked. Awesome. Sure, it was all blue, the text, the background, the map, everything, but that's a minor con. I grinned; Beat that iPhone 5S!

I slipped past Grace, up the stairs, and into my ex-room. Still holding Hecate, I was somewhat tempted to have her set the room alight. But, that was a little bit too much, even for me. So, I was reduced to smashing the Grumpiggy bank on the carpeted floor, which didn't break it. After attempting to crush it underfoot, I finally let Hecate try to Scratch it into oblivion. Still didn't work.

I was motivated, it was the one thing in this room that I could break without guilt setting in later. And it. Was. Hideous.

Finally, I sent out Epsilon and told her to stab it with her horn/scythe. She stared at me like I was an idiot (I probably was), and obliged. One ceramic Grumpig with a gaping hole in its chest later, I had my money. Sure, it was kind of gross taking my money out from its heart/chest region, but it was better than the recommended way.

It turns out that the me who was me before me was a shopaholic, even though she had like TWO different outfits in her closet, and they were only different sizes. There was only about 1000 P left. That sounds like a lot, but when the inflation is this sucktacular (I will give a several cookies to whoever can get this reference), that would probably get you a loaf of unsliced bread. That's somehow both burned and undercooked.

One more awkward hug later from Mom when I went back down the stairs, I was finally off. Off to see the Champion! The wonderful Champion of Kalos! I'll beat the gyms, get a crap ton of badges, and _snap out of the song_, _me_, I mentally scolded myself as instrumentals started showing up in the background. I walked through the gate and brought out Epsilon again. I sat down with my team for the first time, and had my first team pep talk with them.

"Okay, guys, we are on our journey. First things first, team name. We need the Coolest. Name. Ever. Otherwise we'll be the laughingstock of the GTS." A lot of people use the GTS. You need respect and I-don't-give-a-shit-about-what-you-think swag to go through there unscarred. Which brought me to my second point. "This is rated PG-13. Swearing is semi-limited. Got it?" The two stared, probably because they had the weirdest movie-rating system ever in Kalos, and had no idea what logical ratings were. "Never mind, on to the team name. Something Greek-ish, to suit your names. Team Greece? Team Greek? Team Greco-Roman? Team Greco?" The last one inspired the name of the century: "Team Gecko." Of course, there was no arguing about it; there was too much swag in there for there to be any. Eh, who was I kidding, I'd be torn to shreds in the GTS before I even walked into wherever it was located here.

Epsilon and Hecate, being the lifelines that I needed, nodded enthusiastically. Really, guys? Most stupid name ever, and you HAVE to agree? Now it'd be stuck as that, unless… "Team Olympus." No, too formal sounding. "Team Titans." No, to referency to the show from like five years ago. "Team…" Oh, no. I was running out of ideas. Quick, brain scan of all the Greek stuff I knew. "Um… Titans, gods, half-bloods, nymphs, satyrs, other nymphs, mortals, the other kind of nymphs, wait… There's another name for half-bloods, and it sounds badass… I have it. Team Demigod." It was perfect. Half mortal, half god, they _can_ be killed, but they're just too awesome to actually die. I can see it now, Team Demigod, walking down the whatever you walk down, no. Walking out of Victory Road, unscathed, with all my other Pokémon just as fresh as I am, ready to take on the Elite Four. And wipe the dust with them. Yep. Team Demigod.

The other members of Team Demigod, however, were not so enthusiastic. Hecate was staring at me, and Epsilon was staring at I don't know what. All I saw was a random patch of tree bark. I shrugged, stood up, and started to walk away, before remembering to register Epsilon.

After trying to discern what exactly QVs were, they were practically the same as Hecate's, I started heading down Route 1, practicing my Team Demigod fresh-out-of-Victory-Road swag. Of course, Epsilon and Hecate just walked, while I strode slo-mo style down the path, hand crossed, confident smirk on my face, as the trees burned behind me. I was tempted to make that my Christmas card picture, if they had Christmas here, and if Phil the Photo Guy had a hotspot.

All of the fantasizing was brought to an abrupt halt when I saw it. The smile, the eyes, the Froakie who looked like he was ready to kill himself. Shauna. And she was waiting for me.

"River! Yay! Now we can battle with my Lil' Froakie! I bet he's way stronger than any of your Pokémon!" came the most annoying girly squeal thing ever from Shauna's mouth.

"Do I have to do this?" I was looking forwards to heading onto Route 2 and finding some other potential members of Team Demigod. But I dunno, now that I knew they had actual personalities and stuff, I couldn't chuck them in a box when I had my full team.

"Yes. Now let's goooooo!" Somehow Shauna's tiny stature allowed her to continue with that 'ooo' for about ten seconds; impressive. "Go, Lil' Froakie!" With that call, her Froakie, who I dubbed Devin, hopped down to meet about 1/3 of the way between us. I had to choose between Epsilon and Hecate: If I chose Epsilon, I'd probably win. But if I chose Hecate, she wouldn't throw a hissy fit and burn everything within a 10-foot radius, which actually wasn't that much, but still.

"Hecate! You're up!" Hecate bounded forwards, the fire of battle in her eyes. At least, I hope so, her back was to me. "Use Scratch!" She happily complied, bounding forwards to deliver the first strike of my official Pokémon journey.

Author's Note:

Yes. I just did that. Paused in the first Trainer battle. Makes you wanna read the next episode, right? So do it. I'll update every other day, a two day gap every so often, and the occasional three day break. I hope, it takes a while to do this. Also, there's a one-week gap between Arcs so that I can generally not go insane from the endless writing. Just wanted to let you guys know that ahead of time.


	5. Vikings and Prey Birds

Author's Note:

GAH! This episode was IMPOSSIBLE. Writer's sphere (it's like writer's block when you know what to write but can't get there) has driven me CRAZY! And when in doubt, make stuff more dark and angsty! Woohoo!

Also, semicolons are my new BFF. InfiniteRiver x Semicolons is almost as canon as Sycamore x Grace. Almost.

**Hecate's POV**

As I closed the gap between myself and the Froakie, I let the excitement of it all flow through me. The thrill, the adrenaline, the heart racing. It was wonderful. My claws outstretched, ready to nail the Froakie. I was ready.

I missed. The Froakie, who had seemed so immobile a moment before, as if it was harder to move than a Snorlax, suddenly sprang into life and leaped away, my claws scraping the stone blocks that lined the battlefield.

"Lil' Froakie, use Bubble!" rang a voice that was so sweet it was almost bitter. The Froakie shot a stream of bubbles from its mouth, which hit me between the eyes. I blinked; that hadn't done anything. I was fine. Then the pain hit me.

It was like acid had been splashed all over the front of my face. Sure, it went away after a while, but it still hurt! I yowled and backed away from the now very dangerous enemy.

"Come on, kid! You can take 'im!" Epsilon, the other member, was trying to throw me off my game. They all were. I was alone, not having any allies on my side. I was cornered. And I was going to break free.

I let out a yowl, and a stream of fire burst out of my mouth. It sailed towards the Froakie, and hit it in the face as well. However, when the fire dispersed, the Froakie was still standing. It looked untouched. It shook its head, and prepared for another Bubble. When the barrage of bubbles came my way, I skirted them and ran straight for the Froakie.

"Scratch!" My trainer. Of course, that was what I was going to do. What did she think, I was going to use Ember again? I pounced, remembering what had happened barely thirty seconds ago. As I predicted, the Froakie showed signs of bounding away again: muscles tensing, shoulders lowering, eyes focusing on a certain spot. I followed his line of sight, and slightly averted my course to hit him as he dodged.

The Froakie leaped into the air, thinking that he would escape my claws, but I proved him wrong. They raked his side as he leapt, trying to avoid it. He collapsed; the three long claw marks had just broken the skin. The other girl, with the bitterly sweet voice, came dashing over to him, squealing. "Lil' Froakie! Are you okay?! You'll be fine, don't worry." She turned to glare at me. "You should be ashamed of yourself, you, you, you…" she trailed off, her vocabulary consisting of zero insults. I shrugged and headed back to the other members of Team Gecko.

Trainer knelt down to inspect me, and wrapped me up in a hug. "You did great, Hecate," she said, with a grin on her face. The Absol just looked at me with a little… was that pride in her eyes? She strode up to me, a smirk on her face. "You did good, kid. But you're never gonna be able to beat me."

"Oh, yes, I will!" I said; if she wanted a challenge, she could have one. "If at the end of this journey, if I can beat you in a fair battle, you have to… be a servant for everyone else on Team Gecko for a day." I smiled confidently.

"And if I win, you have to… stand outside in a thunderstorm. The whole time. Snow doesn't count." Dang. I was in trouble if I lost. But I couldn't show weakness.

"Deal," I said, shaking Epsilon's paw. I was going to have to train a lot over the course of our travels. As I was mentally conjuring milestones to follow, trainer interrupted.

"Okay, I have no idea why you two just did a pawshake thing, or what you two are talking about overall. Hey, Shauna, can you get a Pokémon translator somewhere here?" The last sentence was yelled in the direction of the bittersweet-voiced girl, whose name was apparently Shauna.

"I think they have a whole store for them in Luminose," she replied, still holding her Froakie, who was semi-struggling to get out of her clutches. I grinned; at least my trainer respected personal space. And was 100% sane. Okay, maybe 75.

With that, we headed into the center of Aquacorde Town. It was around noon, and people were milling about. Epsilon looked a little uneasy, but I took it in stride. Trainer was heading over to an unmarked building on the right side of the main courtyard, where a fountain spewed water in the center. She walked in a door, and the Absol and I followed.

We were in a small room, with books on one wall. In front of us, there was a desk with a young woman behind it. Trainer strode up to the woman and said "can I heal my Fennekin here?" The woman nodded, and I was returned into my Pokéball.

Instead of the nothingness of all the other times I was in a Pokéball, there was a meadow. Filled to the brim with beautiful wildflowers. Any color you could imagine was there. The sun was shining, and small puffy white clouds floated in the pristine blue sky. I turned, mouth gaping, to take it all in. And I was pulled back out into reality again.

"She's all done, thank you for your patience," said the lady behind the desk. Trainer thanked her and we exited the building. We headed across the central plaza and went into a separate building, where Trainer got several Pokéballs from a man behind a desk, plus an odd one that looked like a normal Pokéball, but its top was white as well as the bottom, and it had a red strip across the middle. I nudged her, trying to ask what it was.

"What's up, Hecate?" she asked, kneeling down to meet my eyes at a more even level. I stared at the odd-looking Pokéball that was still clutched in her hand, willing her to know what I was asking. "Oh, you want to know what this is?" She held it up, its two white sides gleaming in the bright sunlight. "It's a Premier Ball. You get one as a bonus whenever you purchase 10 regular Pokéballs. And it looks a lot easier to put decals on." She inspected it, twisting it around in her hand. "Maybe a fire symbol? Or a symbol of whatever type the Pokémon I catch in it is?" she mused. Eventually Trainer stood up and continued down to the bridge, only to stop short when a particularly loud grumble rang out from her stomach. "We need food."

Trainer spun around and sprinted back across the courtyard, Epsilon and I at her heels. She stopped in front of a man who was standing by the fountain, and asked for a "grocery store". What that is, I have no idea. But the man nodded and pointed to a building adjacent to the one where Trainer got the Premier Ball at.

We walked inside, and Trainer started walking down small hallways, picking items off of shelves at random. Epsilon and I sat awkwardly near the doorway, waiting for her to finish. I tried to make small talk: "So, who do you think will join the team next?"

"I dunno," came the deadpan reply. So much for conversation. Nonetheless, I tried again.

"No guesses? Not one?"

"We'll have to see what we find on the next Route. Probably whatever's there," shrugged the Absol, who then settled down and started to take a nap. I followed her example, and just before I fell asleep, Trainer had finished with whatever she was doing and walked over to us.

"Team! Get up, we are off to Route 2! We don't want Team Calem slash Olaf United to beat us to the first gym!" said Trainer, who was bursting with excitement. I stood up, shook my head to clear it from the remaining drowsiness, and we headed out to Route 2, heads held high, ready for anything.

What I was not ready for, however, was Trainer stopping at a nearby PhotoStop and having a photo of us taken. We were positioned just outside Route 1, with our backs to the path, as the Photo man fiddles with a small black box. After a minute of shuffling, his finger, which was laying on top of the box, tensed, and a flash of light erupted. I blinked, rubbing my eyes with a paw, and squinted in the direction of the box. The man behind it stuck out his fist with a thumbs-up accompanying it, and Trainer was evidently happy. She walked over to him, gave him some slips of paper, and we were finally on our journey.

Across the bridge, we encountered a strip of tall grass, its bright green tips reaching twice as tall as me. Rustling could be heard from inside, and Trainer steeled herself before walking in, the Absol and I trailing along after. We made it halfway across before we encountered a wild Pokémon.

It was dark gray in color, with a sort of frill around its oversized head. Trainer nearly stepped on it before it shrieked and made her jump away. "Scatterbug!" she yelled. I had no idea what to do; scatter? Then I remembered that Scatterbug was a Pokémon, there had been a few in the lab.

"Hecate, Ember!" I obliged to her command, and shot a small stream of fire at the wriggling bug. It screamed, writhing, and scurried back into the undergrowth, still smoking. I grinned; winning my first wild Pokémon battle was easier than I thought. I started combing through the grass, searching for more bugs to train on. After finding some Caterpie and a Weedle, and easily defeating them, I headed back to Trainer, who was waiting for the Absol, who was poking through the grass herself.

After several minutes, Epsilon gave up and walked over to the rest of Team Gecko. We proceeded over to the next strip, where the boy trainer, Calem, was waiting with Olaf. Trainer saw him, and jogged the last couple yards to greet him. Epsilon and I stayed at our steady pace as they exchanged hellos; Calem didn't particularly like me after my stunt with the bush, and I don't know why Epsilon was hanging back. I mentally told myself to ask her why later.

"So, River, do you want me to teach you how to catch Pokémon?" Calem was asking. Trainer glanced at Epsilon; I suspected that she had already caught her. But she nodded reluctantly, and Calem waded into the grass, on the hunt for a wild Pokémon.

He ran into a Pidgey, which flew up, screeching and flapping its wings. Olaf ran forwards and landed a Vine Whip on the back of its neck. The Pidgey let out a squawk and collapsed into the grass. We all stared intently at the patch it had fallen in, waiting for it to come out.

It came from behind Olaf and tackled him on his spine. Olaf went down with a grunt. Hard. He lay there for several seconds, not moving, and Trainer went to ask Calem something.

"No!" came the reply to her question. "He can do this on his own! Olaf needs to be strong!"

"But Calem, he's laying facefirst in a potentially dangerous area. I should bring in Hecate or Epsilon. They could weaken it, and you catch the Pidgey," Trainer reasoned. I started bouncing on the balls of my feet; a challenging battle! If Olaf couldn't beat it, it would be a worthy opponent for me.

"Olaf is doing this by himself." I would have screamed to Calem that Olaf was probably going to die if he stayed there, if he could understand me. Instead, Epsilon raced out to where Olaf lay, shielding him from the Pidgey, who had vanished. "Get away from him! He can do this!" Calem was starting to lose it, and Trainer knew it too. She grabbed Calem's shoulder and yelled for Epsilon to bring Olaf over.

Epsilon obliged, and soon we had an unconscious Chespin at our feet, who was not moving, and didn't look like he was breathing. Trainer rolled him onto his back, and looked at his chest. "I can't see movement. I'd check for a pulse, but I have no idea where to look for one," she said. Suddenly, she straightened, and beckoned for me to come over. I did, and she grabbed my ear fur. Trainer gave a tug, and I shrieked. She held up the piece of orange fur that she had yanked out of my ear, and held it over Olaf's nose. I peered, trying to see what she was doing.

The fur stirred. Trainer gave a shout of joy, and I did the same. Calem reached down and tried to take a hold of Olaf until Trainer stopped him, "You don't wanna mess up his spine any more. Use his Pokéball." Calem did so, and sprinted back through the grass to Aquacorde Town.

"Do you guys want to follow Calem, or head into Santalune Forest, I think it's called," asked Trainer. Epsilon nodded towards the forest, and I was torn between Olaf, who was still my friend, and- why am I debating this? Olaf is my friend, and he could be seriously hurt! I started walking towards Aquacorde Town, and Trainer and a very reluctant Absol followed me.

Back across the bridge, we spotted Calem running into the building where I had been healed. We walked inside, and saw Calem talking to the lady behind the desk.

"Can you fix him?" asked Calem. He let out Olaf, who was still unable to move. He lay on the desk, barely breathing.

"I think I can," answered the girl nervously. She started inspecting Olaf, poking and prodding at various parts. After a while, she stopped, with a grim look on her face. "His back is broken. I can't do anything, you'll have to see a Pokémon Center. The nearest one is in Santalune City, and I may be able to get you a ride there via helicopter."

"Will Olaf be okay?"

"He will, it will just be a month or so until he recovers, and even then not fully." Calem looked heartbroken; his first Pokémon had a broken back after his first battle. I felt really bad for him. "Just sit in the chair until the helicopter comes and you two should be fine," she said as she gestured to a nearby chair. Calem did as she said and Trainer went over to talk to him.

"Hey, Calem, you okay?"

"What do you think?" He replied, deadpan.

"Do you want the oh-my-god-I'm-so-sorry point of view on this, or the let's-see-the-bright-side-of-this view?" Trainer asked, trying a different approach.

"I want to hear what you have to say that's positive about the situation," came the monotone answer.

"You get to ride in a helicopter, and see Kalos, and fly before you're allowed to use Fly." That was a positive spin on things, and Calem even looked a little brighter. "Now I, and the rest of Team Demigod have to take the boring path through the boring forest where you can't see anything but boring green." I thought we were Team Gecko. We were going to have a talk about this, when we could actually have a talk.

Team Gecko (yes, I was still calling it that) left the building, walked across the bridge again, crossed Route 1, and entered Santalune Forest, with a grim beginning to our adventure.

**Author's Note:**

And this concludes Arc 1! It was short, but there wasn't all that much left to do, and besides, Arc 2'll be like five million episodes long. Or however long I want it to be. SO I'd better make it long, me.

I'm going on a one week hiatus to prepare my backup episodes and to calm down from the constant writing. 1.5k words a day us starting to get to me. I need to just READ fanfics, instead of stressing "ermahgerd, I need to finish Episode 5!" "Darn you writer's sphere!" and "this would be great for Arc 4! (I've been considering a lot about it, it's probably gonna be my favorite. But you guys get to wait to find out why. BWAHAHAHAHAH)" And start drawing some more. Planning to do an X Nuzlocke on dA later, will tell you more probably after the holidays. Farewell.


	6. Home-Cooked Food Poisoning

Arc 2, I'm a Survivor

_I'm a survivor,_

_I'm not gonna give up,_

_I'm not gonna stop;_

_I'm gonna work harder_

**River's POV**

Two weeks.

Stuck in these goddang woods for two weeks. Sure, the trail was easy enough to follow, but after going off of it, trying to find some berries Epsilon had spotted, it was impossible to find again. I had a dog (thing) and a fox on my team, two of the best sniffing animals on Earth (not sure about this place), but they couldn't find the trail again to save our lives. And our lives probably were at stake right now.

The shadows that the trees had cast had once been beautiful. Now, they were my worst nightmare. Each dapple on a leaf could be hiding a Weedle, waiting to Poison Sting my Pokémon to death. Yes, I was growing paranoid; two weeks of nothing but green and brown will do that to you.

I have to hand it to the Native Americans: they were tough. Of course they didn't have bugs the size of your face who could also probably snack on it, but still. They managed to hunt, fish, survive, and thrive in places similar to these, while I couldn't.

Food was the main issue. I had expected the journey through Santalune to take an afternoon at least, two days at most. But then again, I had expected Pokémon to not really break bones, or backs, or anything, and look where that believing got me. I had brought fifteen cans of food, and only two were left, even after the rationing that had occurred since Day 6.

After taking another left around a berry bush (we had given up on collecting them a long time ago), Team Demigod stopped for a rest break under the shade of an old oak tree. Epsilon laid down and started to nap, and Hecate was just watching me.

"We're lost." Ten days ago, I didn't admit it, five days ago I didn't admit it, two days ago I didn't admit it. But now, under the old oak tree whose leafy ears heard everything in the forest, I admitted it for the first time on our journey. We were lost. It sounded so finalizing, saying it. We were lost. Lost. It sounded like a word that that didn't know how it was ending, with an open path, one way being the right way, but no way to tell which it is.

"We. Are. Lost. Losty lost lost lost!" I chanted in a singsong voice; hopefully I wasn't about to go completely crazy and, I dunno, name a random Persim berry Wilbur or something. But it was always a possibility.

Hecate stared at me like I was crazy (I probably was), and shook her head. She walked over to the great oak's ancient, withered trunk, and started picking up twigs that were strewn around its roots. After piling them up in a heap that reached up to my knees and was as wide as Epsilon's sleeping body, she shot an Ember at the kindling.

We had fire. And I shouted it to the whole world: "Fire! Woohoo! We got fire! Fire!" Yes, I was definitely going crazy. Save me a straitjacket for when I get out of here. If I ever do.

My Fennekin sat down beside me, pleased, and stared into the fire's flickering flames. After thirty second of this, I gave up on her and looked over at Epsilon.

The Absol was doing fine after two weeks; it could have been two hours since we'd left civilization. She kept herself groomed, was well fed, and didn't even have a scratch on her, despite the constant bug attacks.

As if it was reading my thoughts, a Weedle came squirming out of the undergrowth towards us. I sighed to myself, and told Hecate to use Ember.

One well-roasted home-cooked meal later, we were all ready to tuck in for bed, since the sun had gone down maybe an hour before, leaving the forest even more shadowed and mysterious. I laid my head on Epsilon's clean white pelt, and almost dozed off. That's when the cramps started.

We were all awake almost instantly, our stomachs screaming with pain. Great waves of pain racked my gut, leaving me writhing on the ground. Through the agony, I remembered: Weedle are Poison types. Good job, me.

Epsilon was rolling around in the dirt beneath the oak, her sides heaving. Hecate was no better, shooting off random bursts of fire into the dark, cool night air to try and soothe the pain, illuminating the show. Look at us now, I thought through the pain, Team Demigod, the semi-immortal Team o' Doom, succumbing to a bug.

Maybe it was the irony, maybe it was some random psychic unseen force, I don't know. But something made me squirm my way towards my bag, which I knew contained just about every berry on Earth after two weeks of the forest. I was flailing around, my hand a foot away from the bag, and I was so close…

I got it. My hand lashed out and grabbed the bag by its over-the-shoulder strap thingy. I forced my arms to move together, tangle themselves up in knots if need be, but I had to get inside the bag.

My left arm, at an awkward angle, the elbow still writhing, made its way inside the bag. It was not pretty, mind you, but it worked. It started flailing around in the small cloth compartment, and I could feel random items inside. My Pokédex, having died days ago, the HoloCaster, completely forgot it existed, a couple spare Pokéballs, good to know, and the Town Map. Wrong compartment.

Sadly, my hand was not responsive or accurate enough to come out of the Items compartment, go into the Berry Compartment, and grab the right berry to cure poison. Instead, I ended up having to flip the bag over with my right hand sort of crossing over my left, which was still in the bag. All while I was lying down, rolling around below the ancient oak who saw all of this without comment. Nice guy.

I wrenched my left hand out of the Berry Compartment, all the berries that Team Demigod had collected over the course of our forest adventures cascading out onto the forest floor. Now, trying to find a specific Berry in a pile of about five dozen other berries while writhing on the ground trying not to scream in pain so that a pack of random Houndoom can take you to their leader (bet ya five bucks he's Lysandre) in the night is not exactly a walk in the park. It took about fifteen minutes, since the lighting was way messed up, what with Hecate's crazy pyrotechnics in the background.

Finally grabbing the right Berry, I brought my flailing hand, holding the Persim Berry, to my mouth, grabbed it in my chattering teeth, and bit down. Immediately, relief spread throughout my limbs as their spasm stopped. For several seconds I lay on the hard earthen ground, breathing heavily, staring at the canopy of leaves above me, grateful for the fact that no more pain was coming.

Until a burst of fire _this_ close to singing off my eyebrows reminded me of the rest of Team Demigod. I tore off small chunks of the Persim Berry and walked over to Hecate first, because she was more dangerous to the local environment. Gently holding her down, I forced the Berry into her mouth. She immediately stopped writhing and gasped for breath. I left her to recover and walked over to Epsilon.

The Absol was squirming on the ground, her face/blade/scythe thing cutting gashes into the earth around her. I couldn't hold her the same way I did to Hecate; that horn thing would slice my palm (or my neck) in two. Instead, I had to grip her in a sort of headlock, and force the Berry in her mouth from behind. She stopped flailing and sank to the ground. I sat down as well, smiling a bit despite what had just happened, since I had proven that I could beat the wild. Score: Team Demigod 1, Wild 0. I laid my head on Epsilon's side, and like what should have happened before, I fell asleep.

**Day 15**

Morning. The sun was shining (even thought I could barely see it), the birds (and other random Pokémon) were chirping (or screeching, or whatever they did), and three monkeys were staring me in the face.

"Woah! Crazy random monkeys!" I yelled, causing them to jump back rapidly. My shout also caused the other members of Team Demigod to wake up. Epsilon, who I was still resting my head on, immediately jumped to her feet, making my head first snap forwards, then slam back into the dirt. I got to my knees, grumbling all the while.

Hecate was already talking eagerly with the monkeys, who were also gesturing frantically with their paw/mitten things in a certain direction. Epsilon was eyeing them warily, and I was just, well, sitting there.

One of the monkeys, a blue one, started running in the direction that the others were gesturing. Hecate managed to bring him back, however, and got him to (at least this is what I thought they got him to do) explain what he had been doing. The other two monkeys, whose names were beginning to click inside my head, started yelling at him, or maybe praising him while shrieking twice as loud as before, shaking their arms, and jumping around. I dunno how monkey discipline works.

"Can someone explain what's so important in that direction?" I asked, not really expecting a reply, or, at least, one that I could understand. They surprised me, however, by drawing in the dirt with their thumbs, since their hands were mitten-ish, with one giant finger and a thumb. I tried to peer over the red one's shoulder, but he shifted ever so slightly at the moment my head went past. Eventually I gave up, and sat down, patting Epsilon's head as I waited for the monkeys' masterpiece to be finished.

I almost fell asleep when the green one of the monkeys poked my forehead, causing me to jump up and make him spring backwards. I apologized, and he seemed to accept it, although he looked at me a little warily for a few minutes afterwards.

What I saw in the dirt didn't look reassuring, it didn't look horrifying, and it didn't look like, well, anything. Unless you squinted your eyes and tilted your head at an angle; it looked like a unicorn eating asparagus. I looked a little closer, at the parts instead of the whole, and stared.

It was a map. Sure, the map was really crude and bad and stuff, but it was still a map. I could see the mini meadow we were camped out in, the oak tree in a corner, and the path we took to get there. Near the asparagus was something that had like ten thousand arrows (I swear several of them were flashing) pointing to another mini meadow, but his one had an island in the center of it. I pointed to it, asking "we have to get there?" The three monkeys were all either dying of Weedle poison or saying yes, but in an oh-my-god-I-drank-too-much-liquefied-sugar-and-caffeine-blend-this-morning way.

Epsilon and I stood up, me saying "well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go." Boko, the Panpour (not his actual name, just a dub), put out the fire that had somehow survived the night and eagerly waited for the rest of us to finish packing up (mostly me). I stuffed the Berries that were still strewn across the ground from last night's Weedle incident back into my bag, and just before leaving, found my Pokédex laying in the dirt as well. I picked it up, grateful that I had spotted it.

Rafiki (the Pansage (another dub)) led the rest of us through the dappled patched of forest. It was a little awkward, being the tallest creature by far, led by a monkey that's barely taller than my knee. Epsilon didn't look particularly entertained by this fact as well. I mean, you're not going to be respected in the GTS if your tour guide is a monkey. At least, I don't think I'd respect that poor guy (never said I was an saint). But slowly starving or being poisoned to death in the woods was the other option, and living beat pride any day of the week. Tuesday is a close call, however, but life is the winner then too.

It was a very uneventful journey across the forest; the size of our group scared off most of the wild Pokémon, Luke (the Pansear (yes, another dub)) and Hecate held off the more adventurous bugs, and Epsilon fended off the other Pokémon with Bite. Sure, the monkeys were a bit upset when any of their kind were left unconscious with teeth marks in various body parts, but they had to be stopped somehow, and none of us knew any sleep/paralysis moves.

So, after wandering through the woods with no idea where exactly we were going, or why (at least in my case), let's just say that I was beyond surprised when I pushed aside a branch and saw the Home Tree, straight from Avatar, in Santlune Forest.

**Author's Note:**

Okay, kind of bad ending, I know. Not the best way to come back after a hiatus… So, anyways Luke the Pansear is modeled after Luke the Pansear from my first attempt at Pokémon X (long story).

Speaking of X, I finished the game! Woohoo! I now officially hate the Nosepass/Probopass line and their Sturdy/Full Restore spam strategy (damn you Wikstrom. Be the knight you are a FIGHT) . I'm going to post a Nuzlocke on dA in like two years, so check it out then. Updating every other day again; hiatus is only for after an Arc is finished.

P.S. Hiatus was WAAY too long, I have like half the episodes done already. But I'm still doing it. BWAHAHAHAHA!


	7. Voodoo Hoodoo

**Author's Note:**

Merry Christmas Eve! Consider this as my early Christmas present to you all. At least I don't have to wrap it...

Also, renamed story! I just got like ten times more readers thanks to this. However, it will always be known as I Even Miss the Pickles in my folder for this...

**Epsilon's POV**

Coming upon the biggest tree in existence, I was put into the perspective of Flabébé. Being that tiny, with normal trees this large in their perspective, with every other Pokémon on Earth larger than it, must be terrifying. But it may not be, seeing as they know nothing else besides being the smallest. It's what they're used to. The rest of Team Gecko, plus the Pansear, Pansage, and Panpour, had already made their way ahead to the tree while I was contemplating this, so I had to stop my musing and follow.

Up close, the tree was even more massive than I had thought; even though it was still a good hundred feet away, I was stumbling over its knotted roots. The Pans weren't affected, they merely used them as springboards to launch themselves up in the air in a show of gymnastics. Hecate and River were also affected by the roots, the latter landing facefirst in the dirt after tripping over one.

This led Hecate to laugh at her misfortune, and after tripping over her own root, I could barely suppress my grin. Naturally, I then had to trip over one, and pretty soon we were all on the ground, laughing our heads off, the Pans all far ahead of us.

"What are you waiting for? Come on! Everyone can't wait to meet you!" exclaimed the Panpour, while doing a frontflip over a root to get back to us. I glared at him and got back to my feet, continuing over the roots. And who was everyone else? Were there more of them? I hadn't really paid attention to their explanation back in Poison Meadow, as I called it for the incident. I named a lot of the places in the forest that we'd been to.

There was First Night Tree, Learned Taunt Meadow, One Week Tree, and several others all named for what significant thing happened there. I still had to name this tree, it would probably be named something like Pan Tree. I didn't know what it would be just yet, but I would think of something.

Team Gecko eventually made it across the roots, and came to the base of Nameless Tree (that was what I was calling it for now), where a hole that was just as tall as I was lay in the center of the trunk. The Pans went inside the doorway, and Hecate, River, and I followed the trio.

"Woah." River was right. Inside the tree was the heart of a civilization. Pansages, Panpours, and Pansear bustled about in what was evidently the main hall, carrying Berries, leaves, and various objects dropped by Trainers as they passed through the woods. Team Gecko stared; this was simply amazing.

"So, this is the main plaza, and over there is the food store," said the Pansear, pointing his mitten in the direction of a room where, beyond the doorway similar to the entrance, you could see shelves lined with Berries, "it also doubles as out medical store." I nodded; many Berries did have healing properties.

"And then over here is where the bedrooms are!" The Pansage was perched atop another doorway -they had a sort of hem around them- that had what looked like bunks inside. "We should really take you to our leader," he mused. I had no idea who his leader was, but I was okay with not seeing him/her. Sometimes, leaders were bad. Very bad. "She's just up the staircase."

The staircase was right in the center of the plaza, leading up to the second level. The Pans, Hecate, and I all began climbing the stairs. Except for River.

"Ermmm… are you guys headed up there? 'Cause if you are, I won't be able to follow," she said, and it was true; she was sitting cross-legged because the ceiling was too low for her to stand. And she was so heavy, she'd break the staircase. I was debating whether it could even hold me or not. "I'll just wait outside…" Her sentence trailed off, River starting to Krabby-walk back towards the entrance. The Panpour nodded to let her know that he was okay with it, and she left the plaza.

The remaining members of Team Gecko followed the Pans up the staircase, to the second story. A balcony, with a railing of twigs, looked over the central plaza. The Pans led us around the circular balcony, where, on the opposite side of the staircase, was a doorway, larger than the others. I couldn't see the inside of it, due to strings of colorful beads hanging over it.

"Come on in, our leader will be glad to meet you," said the Pansage, while pulling back the bead curtain. The perfume that wafted out of the open doorway started to make me cough; it was about thirty seconds before I could take a deep breath without choking again. Even then, I took shallow breaths as I entered this… leader's… chamber.

I first noticed the pillows. Fluffy, soft pillows in various shades of pink, red, and violet covered the entire floor of the room. In the center, meditating in front of a pool of deep blue water was a meditating Simipour, who opened her eyes when she head us enter.

"Hello! What have we here?" she boomed, her deep voice oddly echoing across the room. "Talo, who did you bring here?"

"Erm… these are… actually, I don't know your names…" the Pansage, whose name was apparently Talo, trailed off, staring at his green feet. The Simipour stared at him disapprovingly, and made him shrink back even more under her stern gaze.

"I'm Hecate, and the Absol here is Epsilon," said Hecate, stepping up and meeting the water type's eye bravely. "Trainer's outside; the tree was too small for her."

"Ah, I see!" laughed the Simipour. "My name is Kamara. I am the spiritual leader here at the Tribe. Also the regular leader. Welcome to the Tree," she said, eagerly holding out her paw to shake. Hecate and I glanced at each other to see who would shake first. Eventually, I gave in to her puppy-Growlithe eyes; I thought I'd be better at that than her. I semi-reluctantly stretched out a forepaw, and Kamara gripped it in her own. She shook vigorously, and I recalled my paw, staring at her a little weirdly for her surprising eagerness. "So, what brings you here?"

"Well," I began, and launched into the story of how we ended up in the 'Tree', starting from when we went off the path in the forest to get the Berries, going over every major event that happened, concluding at where we walked in here. "and we want to know how to get out of here," I concluded, looking in Kamara's eyes, which had never lost interest during the course of my tale.

"Sorry guys, can't help you there. I've never been out of the forest myself," said Kamara, "but I think the local spirit, Hoopa, can help out here." Hoopa? If he was a local spirit of the forest, he may not know the way out of here either. But I kept my doubts in my mind; saying them aloud would make them seem even worse. "I just need to get a little ritual started." Spirits, rituals, this was getting better and better. I think we would have stood a better chance of making it out of the forest if we'd just ignored the Pans and continued wandering around.

Nonetheless, Kamara began rummaging around in what appeared to be secret compartments under the pillows, pulling out various trinkets. "No, no, I need the Oran-scented candles… no, not Iapapa! Oran! Ah, there it is!" She held a tall, thin, royal blue candle triumphantly in the air. "And now I need to get the Willow tree-branch wand…" eventually, a bundle of long, thin, springy branches joined the candles in a small pile in front of the pool. Several other organic voodoo materials later, the Simipour gave out a call: "Spritzee!" I couldn't remember which Pokémon that was until I saw them.

They were these pink… things that came… were they dancing? Dancing out of the shadows of the room. They had long, beaklike noses, and had long, shaggy hot pink fur that went into a sort of wisp at the tops of their heads. With them came a fragrance that was… captivating. I didn't know why, but it was. I felt myself inhale it deeply, then sigh happily.

"What's her deal?" Even that somewhat cold remark from Hecate couldn't get my spirits down. Kamara stared at me for a minute, then snapped her paws. How she did that, I had no idea.

"Your buddy Absol is a Dark Type. Fairy moves, and Fairy Pokémon, are strong against them." The last fact snapped me out of my trance. Me, the Doom Death Dog, as River called me sometimes, was weaker than these floating balls of puff! I growled, to show them I wasn't intimidated by them and their… fluffy, pink, smelly-ness. The Spritzee just giggled and took their places in a three-quarters circle around the pool. Hecate and I were opposite the gap that the Spritzee had made, which was intended for Kamara, who was busy placing her voodoo props in their places around the pool.

After the Oran candles were in place, completing an intricate star around the water, Kamara turned to Hecate. "I would normally have to light these all by hand, since the Pansear here have only learned Incinerate, and I need the things here to be intact and not in a burning crisp. Thank you, Kodo," she said to the blushing Pansear. That sounded like something River would say. I decide to like Kamara a little bit more. "And I presume that you know a good Fire move or two?"

"Yeah, Ember," muttered Hecate sheepishly, staring down at her paws. Then she straightened, chanting to herself "you can do it, me. You can do it," over and over.

Eventually, she stopped the pep talk and started shooting fireballs at the candles. I have to admit, her accuracy was impressive. Every Ember she shot hit its target. After five or so Tauros-eyes, Hecate started to relax, and hit the rest of the candle wicks with ease. About a minute later, the pool of water in front of us was eerily lit by the candles placed intricately around it. Kamara gave Hecate a look of approval, and she brightened.

Kamara took out one of her willow-branch wands and stuck it in one of the Berry-candle's flame. It started smoking, and she waved it over the fire. She began chanting in a language that I didn't know, and neither did any of the other Pokémon here, by the looks on their faces.

_"Singaba hambayo thina,_

_ Kuhlom hla ba,_

_ Khe pha si ne kah ya,_

_ El zuwi ni"_

She copied the same chant over and over, the smoke from her branch wand, combined with the flickering light, made the room seem ethereal. The Spritzee began doing a dance, which involved a lot of twirling, and whenever they did so, a pinkish perfume wafted out from under them.

The smoke, the Spritzee's perfume, and the perfume that was in here before made me start choking a little. It was just a grumble in my throat, however; I didn't want to ruin the voodoo magic spell or whatever it was. I toughed it out and stared intently at the water along with Hecate.

Kamara did her chant thing one more time, thrusting her wand, which flared bright orange, into the pool on the last "ni". The water began glowing an unnatural sky blue, and I shied away from it, Hecate leaning even farther in. What can I say? I don't like the supernatural.

The water began to glow even brighter, and started to rise, which was getting to my out-of-this-world limit. And my out-of-this-world limit is very high. Trust me. So, the already eerie glowing water was starting to make a pillar in the center of the pool, steam billowing off of it, and I was seriously thinking that the Spritzee's perfume contained some sort of alcohol in it.

"I see something!" Hecate was staring into the pillar of what was mostly steam now, and she could see something. What it was, I had no idea. Kamara, who I presume was also peering into the mist, exclaimed "I see it, too!" Could they see Hoopa, whoever he was? I tried looking into the steam, but I saw nothing. Why couldn't I see this spirit of the forest? Was it something I did? Did he not approve of me?

"Hoopa!" I guess he didn't.

**Author's Note:**

Yep, I just used an unconfirmed Pokémon. Go ahead, unfollow, unlike, unsubscribe, unread this story, unlive for all I care. I won't really miss the people who do. But to you guys who will stick with me through confirmed, unconfirmed, and those really sucky filler chapters that go nowhere plot-wise, you guys are the true… IDK what to call you guys. Suggestions in the comments!

To you people who are wondering where the chant came from, it's a South African song that translates into something like this:

_On Earth an army is marching,_

_ We're going home._

_ Our hearts are filled with song,_

_ We sing out strong._

At least, that's the English verse of the song. Totally matches the situation. Oh, and RIP my first (ever) Hall o' Fame team to do my Nuzlocke (not so much of one anymore) run. Bye Dione (Absol), Trent (Blastoise), Fleur (Roserade), Mal (Gallade), Zoe (Gardevoir), and Jackie (Delphox). I'm going to miss you all. *sniff* ONTO THE NUZLOCKE (I have renamed it One-way Box Run (You can't take Pokemon out of the Box once they're in there))! P.s. I totally made Mewtwo faint… I ran out of Pokéballs. And gave up. Screw him. (I just lost like half of you guys who toughed it out through Hoopa.)


	8. The Great Gate to Lumiose City

**Author's Note:**

I'm watching the anime as I write this… I seriously thought Clemont was pronounced all French-y like Clay-mawnt. Now he shall forever be known as Clemontine. I also thought he'd have a higher voice, like he was maybe 9 or 10. And dude, be proud of the fact you're a Gym leader. And also… wear actual clothes. Bro, those suits went out of fashion… actually, they were never in fashion.

**Hecate's POV**

In the mist of the water came a shape… I had no idea what it would turn out to be. But Kamara's triumphant shout of 'Hoopa!' made me think it was who we wanted. I wondered exactly what the spirit would look like. During my musings, the mist dissipated quite a bit, and I caught a glimpse of him.

Its most prominent feature was its rings. Two were loosely hanging around its horns, which were upturned like a Bouffalant's. A third was used like a belt around its waist, except under the ring-belt was… nothing. Just empty air. It creeped me out a little. It had an imprint of a ring on its forehead, and had a mischievous grin on its face. Its greenish-yellow eyes were staring right at me, and I shivered. Kamara nodded a greeting and went straight to business.

"Hoopa, these two with me need to get out of the forest to… where is it?"

"Not Aquacorde Town," I replied, since that was where we had come from, "we're in Santalune Forest… I dunno, maybe Santa-something?"

"It's Santalune City, even though I have no idea what I'm supposed to be seeing," piped up Epsilon, "and why I can't see it. I can't see it. Was it something I did? I'm sorry for whatever it was."

Hoopa evidently found this funny and cackled. "_she can't see me, since this is a Psychic illusion. Or hear this telepathy, either,_" said a voice inside my head, which I assumed to be Hoopa. "_anyways, about your situation, I'm not completely sure of the way out. There are several paths, a few disused. I'm not completely sure, though, so you'll have to try them all. Sorry, that's the best I can do._" Hoopa certainly didn't look very sorry. His (Hoopa's telepathic voice sounded like a male's) toothy smile never changed while he was using telepathy.

"Why is there static in my head? And what are we supposed to be seeing?! I can't see it. Is that bad?! I'm sorry for whatever I did, Hoopa. Please let me see you. Please!" Epsilon was beginning to panic. Kamara was too busy with Hoopa's further instructions that I had pushed to the back of my head (literally, it was next to the thoughts of lunch), so I was left to keep the Absol from having a heart attack.

"You can't see Hoopa because he's appearing through a Psychic illusion, and the static in your head is his telepathy or something. Sorry," I said. Epsilon looked crestfallen, like an orphaned Growlithe you see on the street begging for even a Berry seed. She eventually calmed down, settled to the ground, and was lost in her own thoughts. I suspected she felt useless, since she couldn't hear Hoopa, or see him, and couldn't sense his presence, save for a static in her head that was the result of her Darkness. I didn't blame her, personally. I ignored her and focused my attention back to Hoopa.

"_And the path out by the pond with all the Magikarp should take two days to cover, if the weather's good. There's a road to the east of that, where the occasional trainer walks by, but very few. The last one I saw was maybe a month ago. Possibly two. But, that path's thicker and you'll see fewer Pokémon,_" continued Hoopa. It would help to know exactly which direction we were going, but sadly, Trainer, who probably knew, couldn't understand us. Would telepathy work? I asked Hoopa, who gave a cackle in response.

"_I would if I could, sweetheart,_" he replied, which infuriated me; no one calls me sweetheart. No one. The last Pokémon to do so (Olaf) ended up having to be in the intensive care ward of the lab for a week. "_but I can't leave the mist, and speaking of that, it's running out. I'm gonna have to go soon._"

"But what's the best way to get out of the forest?" Kamara asked to the now rapidly fading figure.

"_I'd say the northern passage; most trainers who pass by are headed that way. But if that doesn't work, go…_" his last instruction was so faint that I couldn't hear it, and Hoopa was no longer visible. The pool went back to the deep blue that it was when we had first arrived. Something changed in my peripheral vision, and I whirled around in a flash.

It turned out to only be the Spritzee; they had stopped their dance. They partly walked, partly fluttered back to their hidey-holes, and I roused the Absol, assuming the show was over.

"Anything I miss of importance?" she inquired.

"Not much, I think we're headed north. That's what Hoopa said was the best way, at least," I replied.

"So north," Epsilon said, with a hint of undertone. I personally didn't care, either, as long as we got out of the forest relatively soon.

"Okay, it seems like you two are headed north!" exclaimed Kamara, who was in the process of putting away all the props she had used for the summoning. "Better tell your trainer, however you can." Oh, yeah. How exactly do we communicate north with Trainer? I'd picked up a little writing, what with living in a lab for ninety percent of my life, but I had no way to write it, at least not now. When I evolved, and gained opposable claws, it'd be a lot easier. I dreamily thought about the future as Team Gecko walked down the stairs, out the doorway, and into the fading twilight.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

**Route 4, Central Kalos, Kalos Region**

The pair walked along the straightaway Route to Lumiose. The taller of the two eagerly pointed to the lights that were just visible ahead. The other simply continued the steady pace he had kept since leaving Santalune City.

The taller said something to the shorter, who shrugged. She began to run towards the city, its light beckoning to them. The shorter one passed the fountain, where several roller skaters still perfected their skills. He glared at them, questioning their motives to just go around in circles endlessly. What was the point? Was there one? Did they do it to end the monotonous tone of their lives by doing something even more monotonous? It made no sense to him, and he cast his musings from his mind.

He could barely see his companion, who was still sprinting to greet the city ahead, so he picked up his pace. Walking quickly, almost running to match her pace, he started to get a premonition. Something bad was happening, he thought, and it was happening soon.

Movement flashed in the corner of his eye, and he spun around to face it. However, whatever had caught his attention had vanished. He stared at the spot for a few more seconds before continuing to catch up with his companion.

She was still running, eyes on the gate to Lumiose, when they came.

Sneasel, Scrafty, Houndoom, almost every Dark type he knew came leaping out from beyond the well-worn path. He went to call out a warning to his companion when a well-placed Faint Attack brought him to the ground.

Vision fading, he saw another of the ambushers, a Scrafty, sneak up to his companion and deliver a blow much harder than the one he had just received to the side of her head.

The last thing he saw before everything went black was crimson splattering on the hard-packed earth of Route 4, just in front of the great gate of Lumiose City.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

**The Tree, Santalune Forest, Central Kalos, Kalos Region**

I was woken up by the other members of Team Gecko, who were looking down on me, their faces framed by the dappled green of the forest above them.

"Ohmigosh Hecate! Are you okay?!" Trainer was close to panicking when I staggered to my paws, giving what was more of a grimace than a smile to show that I was okay. Somewhat swaying on my paws, I tried to recall just why I had collapsed outside the doorway. Poring over my memories, I saw the reason why.

It had come into my mind like a bullet, pushing the thoughts of heading northwards out of my skull. The… flashback, I had to call it. There was no other thing. It could have been a vision, but I wasn't completely sure. It felt so much like I was in it, I wasn't the camera that had filmed it. I was the one who had experienced it and wasn't just seeing, but feeling. I tried to recall exactly what the flashback was, and found the memory fading just as fast as Hoopa had in the mist of Kamara's chamber.

A running figure, a flash of clothes from a skater speeding by, the pain as something came crashing into the back of my head. A patch of red in the center of a fading black. Moments were all that remained now. Glimpses of what had actually happened. I shook my head, which seemed to clear the rest of the flashback. Just when I thought it was gone, a final glimpse shoved its way to the forefront of my mind.

Black. The deepest, darkest black I had ever seen before. But, in the center of the black, which I had expected to be the darkest patch, there was a speck. A tiny, pinkish light floated there, suspended in nothingness. It grew, and when it had just about filled up my entire field of vision, I could see a silhouette inside.

There was a head, shaped much like my own, but without such large ears. A long, thin (compared to its head) body that grew slightly wider as it went farther from its head, which ended in a pair of oversized feet, much longer than the shoes the scientists wore, but of the same general shape. Its arms were short and stubby, but its tail was long and noodle-like. However, the tip widened out slightly and was trailing off to the side of the rest of his body. Suddenly, the light vanished. The darkness soon followed, leaving me, for the second time, waking up, seeing my teammates staring down at me.

"Kid, you okay? No faking this time," Epsilon said flatly.

"I… think the Spritzee may have affected me, too," I replied, somewhat lamely, but they would never have believed the truth. Epsilon was pretty much anti-Psychic everything now, and Trainer couldn't understand anyways. Thankfully, the former seemed to believe me.

"Damn Spritzee," she muttered, which brought out a gasp from me. "What?" she asked. "River said swearing was limited, not banned. Besides, they deserve it." I sighed, seeing a glimpse of the future of Team Gecko. But this was more imaginative, and less flashback-y. Thankfully, Trainer interrupted before I could have another.

"So, what did you guys end up learning?" she questioned. Epsilon and I glanced at each other, not knowing what to do, until I remembered the writing strategy I had planned before the flashbacks. I extended my claws out, and began to scratch long, shallow gashes into the earth beneath the Tree.

A few minutes later, I had finished my work, and a large, scraggly N, with an arrow pointing north above it, was etched into the dirt. Trainer looked at it from several different angles until understanding what it meant.

"Oh, we can find a city starting with N this way? N from Black and White has somehow moved to a house in this direction?" Apparently not. I hunched over the N, and began adding to my project. It was more difficult, because most maps I had seen in the lab only contained an N for north in the compass, but a few hadn't. I brought these images to the front of my mind, and used them as a reference.

About five minutes, probably more, later, I had my revised work scratched into the earth. An S, E, and W lay in their respective positions around the N, but none had arrows. Trainer observed the project once more, and finally came to the correct conclusion.

"It's a compass rose!" I nodded, relieved that she had finally understood. "And we're heading… north?" I practically squealed with joy at this (don't ask Epsilon about this; it's a lie), and after a minute of goodbyes to the Tree, to the Pans, and to Kamara, Team Gecko was on its way, with a goal. North.

**Author's Note:**

I could totally make a new Arc right now, but I won't, cuz I'm nice like that.

Anyways, really gloom and doom flashback/vision that also happened right now to a very important-but-not-right-now-more-like-Arc-4 character in the official timeline. If anyone can guess who the main character (not the running chick), then you are either incredibly lucky, a psychic, or me. And a view of you may know this one. A main-ish character. Yay! And Hecate's having visions. Yay it's one of those Psychics who has visions about everything. Even the kitchen sink that was left on by Wally Smith when taking his Arcanine for a walk on Route 7.

But that will not be touched next time, because it's River doing the POV; she's my favorite to write. And no, no psychic-ness for her. It's a unique gift that is only given to like 15% of the NPC Trainers. So you must wait. BWAHAHAHA! Comments appreciated.


	9. Canada Ho!

**Author's Note:**

A bit of a late update (normally do so at like 7-8ish) because I have officially moved into my new subterranean lair! Just like the Batcave, if it had Hunger Games and Minecraft posters everywhere... I have Fred the motivational stuffed penguin beside the laptop for inspiration. I'm just that crazy.

A bit of OOC-ness, but I don't think it's that much. If you want OOC, just go watch the entirety of Total Drama All-Stars. Well, the whole series if you want to know just how OOC. But that makes this seem way more in-character by comparison.

**River's POV**

With the Avatar Home Tree/Seizure Tree behind us, we started our new journey, headed north. North made me think of Canada, and Canada made me think of that one song by Weird Al Yankovic, "Canadian Idiot". I started humming it aloud, getting weird looks from the rest of Team Demigod.

I kept a particularly close eye on Hecate; with her spontaneous fainting-seizure episodes back at the Home Tree, I didn't particularly expect her to stay conscious throughout the whole journey to Canada. Whatever had happened in there without me had changed the Team, even Epsilon.

Epsilon, who had once been the one to beat the crap out of random Caterpie that were like 50 feet away in the wrong direction during our wanderings. She was the one to walk ahead of the team, scouting for… whatever's really dangerous in an uninhabited part of the forest. Land mines? Nuclear radiation from that 3,000 year ago war with AZ and the Floette of epic black flowerness? But now she had lost her Gryffindorishness, and rarely did anything noteworthy.

Night was falling, and the air was growing chilly. I shivered; the clothes that I had on my back were worn, dirty, and I needed new ones, like, now. The other members of Team Demigod were fine, thanks to their fur coats. _Lucky them_, I thought.

"Team," I said, calling the others to attention, "I don't know about you, but I'm freezing to death right now. Let's set up camp." The two glanced at each other, having another one of their conversations (I need the translator already! Hurry up Lumiose), before agreeing to do so, and sat down.

Hecate and I scrounged around, looking for firewood, and Epsilon was in charge of finding a batch of Berries for a very late dinner. The woods were dark, creepy, and I expected Slenderman to show up at some point, or whatever the equivalent of Slenderman is in Pokémon. Hypno? Musharna? Hey, the last one stares at you while you sleep and eats your dreams. Premium nightmare fuel right there. At least they get karma by eating your nightmares, too. Wonder what nightmares would taste like.

In our camp, which for now was nothing more than a particularly large gap between some trees with a pile of twigs and other kindling, I unloaded my newest batch of sticks and sank to my knees, shivering. The cold was starting to really get to me now. Hecate stopped by, looked at me concernedly for a minute, and continued on with her gathering. I sat there, huddled in a ball, for maybe fifteen minutes, but I wasn't completely sure. Trying not to die of hypothermia typically leaves stuff like time estimates as a second priority. Anyways, Hecate managed to bring enough firewood to get a decent blaze going, and soon we had a bright fire crackling merrily away.

"So, guys, we're on our way to whatever's north of this part of Santalune Forest. I dunno what it is, so I'm calling it Canada." This led to two weird stares from Team Demigod, but whatever. I continued. "I have no idea how long this is gonna take. In-game it's like two minutes to cross the forest, and we've been lost for two weeks. But, now that we have an actual direction, we may see the end soon." Based on our luck, I was going to be around 70 when we made it out. But I mentally ordered myself to stay positive about the situation. "Hey, maybe we can find a new team member!" Sure, bugs were okay until level 20, but after that they're just a taken slot in the Box. And even though most of the bugs here were as retarded as all get out, I didn't have the heart to leave them digitalized for the rest of forever.

Epsilon and Hecate looked to be relatively pleased at the prospect of a new member of Team Demigod. I smiled, glad to see their eagerness, and curled up next to the fire, and dozed off.

**Day 16**

The shining sun woke me up, and it was not pretty. I groggily propped myself up on my elbows, mumbling and grumbling all the while. Hecate was still snoring away, her head laying on her front paws. Epsilon was awake already, and was playing guard dog, staring into the trees ahead. The fire had burned down to a smoldering pile of ash. I poked it with with a stick snapped from a tree branch (Smokey the bear's gonna have my hide), and got it going just a little bit more. Finding several twigs we had overlooked the previous night, I added them to the fire.

After making sure the fire wasn't going to die out on me, I went to go and check on Epsilon. I walked over to her and sat down beside Epsilon, who didn't acknowledge the fact that I was there. I greeted her with a tentative "Hi," and she still didn't move. I considered waving my hand in front of her face, but that would probably result in me having one less hand.

"What's up?" I asked her, trying to make out exactly what she was staring at. As I expected, the Absol didn't move. I was kind of worrying that she was dead, but a glance at her sides, which were still moving, showing that she was breathing, told me otherwise. "Not talking? Fine," I sighed, and leaned up against Epsilon. She shifted slightly to make sure we both stayed upright, then turned into a statue again. We stayed that way until the sun was at its peak, and Hecate woke up.

I packed up the few material possessions that I still owned, and divvyed up the berries that Epsilon had collected last night. I gave about five to Hecate and Epsilon, and four to myself. I chose the least freaky-looking one I had, a yellow one with orange spots. Mentally chanting the 'over the lips, past the gums' thing, I took a bite out of the Berry.

Results came right away; it was like having a Coke, Monster soda, a Pixie Stick, 5 pounds of pure sugar, and a 32-oz coffee. Pure energy. I started bouncing around, basically becoming a human Mexican Jumping Bean. Spoink had some serious competition with me around. Of course, Hecate and Epsilon had already finished all of their Berries by the time I calmed down after one bite. This was going to be fun.

After one more hyper-caffeine episodes, one where my muscles flat-out quit on me and turned into a giant pile of jelly, and one where I almost spontaneously combusted, I finally finished my breakfast. Lucky Charms had nothing on this. Hecate was bouncing around, impatiently waiting for me to finish my meal o' madness. Epsilon just sat there, staring at who-knows what.

"Okay, guys, we're headed to Canada!" my voice cut through the awkward silence like a knife through Moomoo butter (does that restore HP, too?). Naturally, the other members of Team Demigod had no idea what Canada was. Hecate cocked her head at me like I was crazy. I probably was, and probably still am. Even I doubt my complete sanity.

Epsilon, like the Rock type she had become, refused to move. Eventually, after a lot of pleading and shoving, I had to put her back in her Pokéball, for the first time in weeks. I felt kind of bad doing so, since it was basically a prison. Yup, my morals and ethics and stuff were having a field day on this trip.

About ten minutes into day 2 of our Journey to Canada, I realized that the next potential member of Team Demigod would not be found here. Even. More. Freaking. Bugs. Gah! Why can't we just get to somewhere with better wild Pokémon already! Route 4, hurry up. You can get Ralts and Budew there, which I'd generally keep throughout my whole game.

Remembering what happened before, as I called stuff that occurred before the weird dimensional gap thing, tears began to form in my eyes again. I glanced around, looking for Epsilon, until I remembered that I had put her in her Pokéball. I collapsed to my knees, Hecate cautiously walking over.

"Hey, Michael," I said. Hecate was looking at me funny, and I realized my mistake. I explained to her: "I was here before. Not in person, but in… spirit." How else can I explain it? "I went on a journey, and I had a Fennekin before you. Named him Michael. He made it all the way to the Hall of Fame with me." The Fennekin I had right now looked like she was ready to kill her digital predecessor. I reassured her. "Don't worry, he's not here now. I have you, and nobody can replace good old Hecate." I smiled and patted her head, tears still streaming down my face.

Hecate, like the best fire wizard fox ever, stayed with me until I stopped crying. Pretty soon my whole team is gonna sit and comfort me when I have my breakdowns. That'd be nice, a Tyranitar sitting by me as I sobbed. Or a Magcargo setting me on fire by mistake when leaning up against me. Well, forget sleeping tonight. I lay my head on her side and stared up and the leaves in the canopy far, far above.

I woke up, and above the dappled leaves, the sky was turning a brilliant orange. I sighed, since a whole day was just wasted with my dozing. I shook Hecate's shoulder, who had fallen asleep as well. I silently thanked God, or Arceus, is it? Whoever it was, that Hecate's not one of those excessive heat of like 4,000 degrees Fire Pokémon, although she did make a good head warmer.

Picking up my bag, which had fallen off my shoulder, I released Epsilon, seeing if she was ready to walk with the rest of the team. She wasn't. Still standing like a statue, staring into nothing. "What's with her?" I asked Hecate. The fox shrugged and made to go move on, when she jerked, her eyes wide. She collapsed, twitching. Epsilon came out of her sort-of coma, and the two of us ran to Hecate.

She was shivering, her head twisting around. Epsilon and I glanced at each other, me too concerned over Hecate to be happy over the fact that she was alert again. My attention turned back to Hecate when she let out a strangled cry. My eyes widened, and I kneeled down to check her mouth and throat.

No foam. She wasn't dying of Pokérabies, at least. Choking? Not that, her sides were heaving just fine, and she showed no signs of windpipe blockage. After my rudimentary medical exam, I decided that I'd just have to wait this fainting-seizure spell out.

It was pretty close to torture, just being able to sit there while the most adorable fox thing ever looks like she's actually being tortured. Epsilon and I sat next to each other, not acknowledging each other. After five minutes, the spasms started to subside, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Hecate slowly woke up, her unfocused eyes blinking rapidly. I wanted to reach out and hug her, but I didn't want to accidentally choke her or something. Epsilon grinned widely, and (don't tell her this, I like all my limbs) kind of stupidly.

"Fen! Fenne-fen!" she coughed weakly. I frowned; what she was saying could be important. I seriously needed to get to Paris (Lumiose, whatever. They were pretty much the same thing) soon. Hecate staggered to her feet, and started limping northwards. I stopped her with a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Hold on, Hecate. Canada isn't going anywhere," I told her. "And we still have like four weeks until Olaf's out of the hospital and back on track with beating us. We're gonna be fine." Epsilon looked skeptical about that, but I ignored her and focused on the Fennekin, who began to sink to the ground again.

Team Demigod made about half a mile that day, and it was a new record for slowness. Even on Avatar Day (you get this reference, you get a cookie) we got farther than this. I sat down, waiting in the twilight of the forest for morning, and, hopefully, Canada.

**Author's Note:**

I was conflicted over whether to have Hecate have another flashback this episode. I decided yes. And you'll never get to see it again. BWAHAHAHAHA! Just kidding, I'm not that mean. Or am I? Anyways, I'm keeping the POV cycle, Epsilon's next. Yay, you guys get to read about a rock for 2k words! Double BWAHAHAHA!


	10. Storytime with Uncle Ep

**Author's Note:**

Just watched Lucario and the mystery of Mew while playing Pokémon Black. Telepathy is just being tossed to random characters now... Dawn from TDROTI could see auras, and didn't use telepathy! Sheesh. Pretty soon Ash's Pikachu'll be telepathic.

That Lucario is still badass, though.

WARNING: Sexual orientation is mentioned, just an FYI.

**Epsilon's POV**

Eventually River fell asleep, her head falling on her chest. I left her to sleep in peace and walked over to Hecate, who was still weak from her… I didn't know what to call it.

"Hey, kid, do you have any idea why you're having... episodes?" I asked the Fennekin. When she didn't respond at first, I tried again. "Kid? You hear me?"

"Wha- oh, yeah, it's you," Hecate responded sadly. "And stop calling me kid."

"No," I deadpanned, "but do you know why you're passing out and freaking the rest of us out of our minds?"

"Yeah, you see, I'm having visions," Hecate replied cautiously. I grinned, thinking it was a prank, and she saw it. "I'm serious! That's what happened the first time, in the tree! I promise!"

I still didn't believe her. "If you did, you should be able to tell it to me," I challenged. Hecate looked a little nervous for a moment before answering.

"Okay, I will. You see…"

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

**Cyllage City Port, Mountain Kalos, Kalos Region**

He stepped off the barge onto dry land for what seemed like the first time in months. Probably because it had been. Sitting there, alone, in the cargo hold for so long had begun to take its toll on him. He stretched out his limbs and began to explore wherever he had stowed away to.

It was… a city. _Not very helpful_, he thought to himself. Nothing to specify which city or which region he was in. He sighed, and started investigating.

Nothing really caught his attention until he spotted the bright orange roof of a Pokémon Center. He began to head towards it, hoping for a reprieve of the almost constant aching he'd been suffering ever since he got on the ship.

When he only had a block to go, he caught sight of a Trainer walking by. He hid behind a building, still very wary of them after what had happened. The Trainer walked inside the building, and he sighed. It would be a long wait until he left the building.

Surprisingly, it wasn't very long until the Trainer left the building, with more of a bounce in his step, the hiding figure noticed. He emerged from his hiding place after the Trainer was out of sight and began to cautiously approach the building. Another Trainer appeared a little while later. Quickly scanning the area, he dismissed all possible places to hide and continued forwards, hoping to hide in plain sight. It worked, and the Trainer ignored him, save for a glance in his direction, which caused him to flinch, but he hid it well.

He walked inside the Pokémon Center and ignored all the stares that came at him. Not many Pokémon without their trainers showed up. He made straight for the front desk, where a concerned Nurse Joy rushed forwards.

"Oh my! Are you alright?!" she asked. He shook his head, thinking it was obvious. Several of the marks from being crushed by sliding boxes still showed. Nurse Joy ushered him into a back room, where a Wigglytuff stood at attention. He noted this, thinking that they didn't have them as the assistant nurses where he came from.

Nurse Joy patched up his injuries and gave him some medication, which he took reluctantly. The Wigglytuff who didn't really do anything but stand there gave him a wave goodbye. He raised an arm to wave back over his shoulder as he left.

Outside the building, he slowly started running, ignoring the staring pedestrians, and eventually broke out in a full sprint, vanishing among the shadows.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

**Santalune Forest, Central Kalos, Kalos Region**

"And that's all I can remember," concluded Hecate, her eyes still at her paws.

"So, that's it? Any idea who it was? Why you saw it?" I asked.

Hecate shrugged, saying "Nope. Happened the first time, too. But, the second flashback-" before I interrupted her.

"Flashback?! It's a _vision_, for crying out loud! This didn't happen to you!" I exclaimed. "Did it?"

"No. But it feels like it happened to me. I can feel stuff, and experience pain, which made up the majority of the first and last vision," she replied.

But I didn't get one thing. "You say the first and third visions a lot. What about the second? Was that one different or something?"

Hecate sighed. "That's the complicated one. Okay, there was darkness around me, and I couldn't feel anything, so this was more of a vision." I nodded, and she continued. "So in the center of the darkness was a soft pink light. The darkness went away except for the very edges of my vision. A silhouette appeared-" she said before being cut off again by me.

"Okay, no descriptions. My imagination is horrid. I need a drawing," I said, gesturing with my claw to the hard-packed earth below our paws. Hecate nodded and begin to etch in the dirt with the fading sun illuminating her project. It took several minutes, and I was close to falling asleep myself when Hecate announced she was finished. "Thank you," I said, with a sigh of relief.

It was a picture of… it didn't really look like anything specific. Thankfully, Hecate pointed out some of the features on it.

"Here's where I assume the head is, and the ears are on top," she explained, pointing to where she assumed the head was. I noticed that, and began to join in.

"So that's the body," I said, poking a long, tubular blob beneath the head with a claw. Hecate nodded, so I went on. "And the arms," I continued, gesturing to the smaller blobs positioned on either side of the body. Hecate gave me an approving smile; I was doing great! "And these are the legs, and the tail, and the… there's nothing else," I said somewhat dejectedly.

"Nope, but you did good," said Hecate. "Now, I have no idea what the color of it was, since it was a silhouette, but-" she said as I cut her off again. I should probably stop doing that.

"Maybe it's the color of the light or something? A soft pink?" I asked, and Hecate shrugged in response. "But what looks like that, and is pink…" I mused, flipping through my own mental Pokédex. Then it hit me. "Mew."

"Who?" Hecate was totally confused by my statement. "Like, Purrloin mew? And Delcatty? And-" Yep, one more interruption by yours truly.

"Mew, the 'ancestor' of all Pokémon alive today," I said, using two of my claws for air quotes, something I picked up from before the grotto. The people I was with used them a lot. And so did River.

"Never heard of him," Hecate said. It took me a minute, but I realized why.

"Oh, yeah, you grew up in a lab that wasn't Kanto and all that. So, prepare for a bedtime story with Uncle Ep," I said, sitting up straight.

"Uncle… but aren't you a girl?" questioned Hecate.

"I'm lesbian," I deadpanned. Hecate stared at me in shock until I sighed and said "Not really. I'm straight. But onto the story!" I exclaimed.

"… So you're not lesbian," Hecate summed up, "but you're an uncle."

"No! Yes! Gah! Just… shut up and listen to the story," I said, tossing in a bit of Mean Look. Have no idea why. But Hecate did close her mouth, which was ready to fire out another question, and settled down next next to the crackling fire she had created beforehand.

"A long, long time ago," I begun, "there was one Pokémon, called Arceus, who is basically the deity of Pokémon. He was the first, and _quiet_," I hissed at Hecate, who was about to ask another question, and moved on.

"As I was saying, Arceus, who was the first ever Pokémon, created the world as we know it. Maybe a thousand years later or so, Mew showed up. He created all the Pokémon and humans who roam the earth today. While that was happening, Arceus was creating the other legendary Pokémon of Sinnoh, Dialga, Palkia, and Girintina. Dialga ruled time, Palkia got space, and Girintina got the Distortion World, basically the Magikarp of the pack.

"Moving on to Mew, well, he didn't really do anything until Team Rocket. They were the first big illegal Pokémon crime organization. As if there's a legal one," I scoffed, and continued. "They heard the stories about him and his powers, and wanted them. So they managed to clone him. His name was Mewtwo and he ended up blowing up the entire Rocket facility on the island they were situated on and hid away in a cave for a couple years over in Kanto.

"So Mew found him and got him to stop basically flipping out and killing everyone. A trainer named Red showed up and managed to defeat him, pretty much making him have a hissy fit and spend the rest of eternity in the cave. Which pretty much takes us to the present day, unless you exclude all the random stuff over in Hoenn and Sinnoh, but that's not important now. The end," I concluded.

"So… Mew is everyone's ancestor?" asked Hecate. I nodded yes, which only provoked another question: "But Arceus came before him." I facepawed myself, narrowly missing my horn.

"Listen, it's just a story, and I doubt it's all true," I said.

"Where'd you hear it from, anyways?" questioned Hecate.

"Some Golbat who'd been to Kanto," I replied. "Nice guys, actually."

"Where'd you meet them?"

"The past," I answered. 'What happens then stays then' is probably my life's motto.

"That's not an answer," Hecate complained, putting on a pouty face.

"I need some sleep. G'night," I said, brushing past her and settling down on a particularly soft patch of grass. I lay down my head, and before falling asleep, I saw Hecate doze off, but she began to twitch in her sleep. I ignored it and fell asleep myself.

I typically don't dream, since I'm a Dark type and the Psychic resistance and whatnot, but when ghosts are around, I am a very lucid dreamer.

I was in a forest, very similar to my own back at the grotto. I glanced around, expecting to see a random Shuppet floating around or something. These dreams were very uninteresting, and would sometimes last for what seemed like hours.

Instead, I found myself wandering into a clearing where an absolutely magnificent Pokémon stood. It had multicolored antlers, and a sleek blue body that looked a lot like a Stantler's. I gawped; hey, you would've too. That thing was beautiful.

"Help… me…" The Pokémon staggered and fell on its side, heaving. I tried to run towards it, but the gap between us seemed to stretch out infinitely. I sprinted as fast as I could, but it was getting no nearer. Using my last ounce of strength, I leaped out in front of me, claws outstretched, as if this were just a Rattatta that had wandered too far away from its home.

And fell into a black void that had spread between us. Twisting, I tried to sink my claws into anything I could find, but there was nothing. Even the gap where the sunlight coming down through the clearing had vanished, leaving nothing more than a darkness that almost seemed solid. I looked around wildly, trying to find a way out.

A light that may have just been my imagination, it was so faint, appeared in the center of my vision. It tried to grow brighter, but flickered, and eventually went out. I called to it, to anything, to escape this nightmare. I hit the bottom.

I jolted awake in the dead of night, shaking. I glanced around at the other team members, who were still asleep, Hecate twitching a little. I sighed and turned over onto my other side, closing my eyes once more.

**Author's Note:**

Epsilon is NOT lesbian. Just wanted to clear that up. And no, the two mystery guys are not the same. You can still guess who they are though. Maybe I'll use your guess if you're wrong.

And Yay! Backstory! If any of you have an idea of where Epsilon came from, you are either the best guesser on earth, a psychic, or me. But IDK how Psychic powers work over the Internet. Also, sorry for all of Epsilon's genius moments, had to move the plot forwards. Let's just say that Absol rival Alakazam in their IQs. Yep, that'll do it. :)


	11. Team Demigecko

**Author's Note:**

HAPPEH NEW YEAR! 2014! WOOT! My new year's resolution... make this story better. And how to make it better but add fire, and explosions, and rainbows... but that's for much later. For now, you get a Firefox.

Just got a new song on my iPod… I listen to my playlist as I write. It's freakin' AWESOME and has inspired a huge plot twist later**. **Like, Team Flare and AZ later. Which shall probably be like Epsiode 231. And this motivated me to do a bit that happens later. THE MUSIC IS MAKING ME DO THINGS! Go look up You're Gonna Go Far, Kid. Now.

This story is turning into one of _those _supernatural stories...yay. This, hopefully, will be the last time for a long while where crazy psychic stuff happens. Right?

**Hecate's POV**

I dreamt I was in a meadow. The same one from when I was healed back in Aquacorde Town, which now seemed like a lifetime ago. I wandered around for a bit, wondering if I was being healed again, even though I didn't really need it. Glancing at the edges, I saw that I was alone.

Or so I thought.

"_Hi,_" echoed a voice in my head. I jumped and started looking around wildly, tentatively calling out "Hoopa?" since it sounded like telepathy, and he was the only Pokémon I knew who was telepathic..

"_Nope, not him. I really should check up on Hoopa, actually. Haven't seen him in months,_" mused the voice. I mentally slapped myself, realizing that the voice sounded different from Hoopa's.

"Then who are you?" I asked, to seemingly no one.

"_The very subject of storytime last night, I think. Kind of hard to tell, what with the Dark Type storyteller and all,_" he replied. "_In simpler terms, Mew._" I blinked, the shock not fully setting in until maybe five seconds later. And with it, a barrage of questions.

"So are you really the ancestor of all Pokémon? What about Arceus? And what do you want with me? Did Mewtwo really blow up a Rocket Facility?"

"_Yes, long story, that's what I wanted to talk to you about, and yes. I kind of sort of maybe helped him out a little there,_" came the just as fast reply, with what I swear was a telepathic grin. But what did he want to talk to me about? I asked him again, and I think he had a bigger smile this time.

"_Well, see, your Trainer's not from here,_" he started out carefully. I rolled my eyes, since I sort of knew that.

"Here in spirit, a different journey, Jackie, blah blah blah, I know that. She's probably from Johto or something," I said, getting somewhat impatient. Mew gave a mental sigh.

"_No, not another region. Another world,_" he deadpanned, which made me stare in shock. "_Yep, something screwy happened with time and space and stuff and I've been trying to find out what the hell happened. Palkia, however, is not being very cooperative. I said I was sorry for trashing you Pokébook page!_" He telepathically whined. I grinned a bit; it was somewhat amusing in a way...

"So what has this got to do with me?" I questioned. My patience was ticking, and I wanted to go… go...somewhere. Mew stopped his ranting, which I had ignored, and continued.

"_You've been having visions, correct?_" I nodded. "_I think they're the remnants of the Psychic whatever brought her here. Dialga, thankfully, is being more helpful about this, so I know a little more,_" he said. "_Time's gone out of whack around her, and you're seeing visions of, well, the future, but the present._"

"That makes no sense," I said. "The present and the future are completely different. One is now, and one is now _now_, but back at the first now. Right?" I was beginning to confuse myself.

"_No, they're not,_" Mew deadpanned, "_time is just how your mind comprehends how everything happens at once and blah blah blah. I stopped listening to Dialga at this point._"

"Still wondering how the visions are happening," I said, glaring at the sky. "And why they've started just now."

"_Oh, yeah, you're seeing the other members of Team Demigecko,_" Mew said, which made me even more confused. Team Demigecko? "_You and the Absol have a different name for the team than your Trainer, so I just combined the two,_" he explained. I shrugged; it sort of made sense.

"_Anyways, since Time has gone screwy, you're seeing your future Team members experiencing a present situation. It's started now because Hoopa opened your mind to the more supernatural side of the world, when before you had pretty much only known the scientific side of things."_

"So this is all Hoopa's fault. Thanks a lot." I'm pretty sure Mew's smile stretched across his entire face. "But why is it only me who gets them?"

"_I think it's because the Absol is a Dark type, so Psychic stuff won't affect her. Not completely sure why it's not affecting River, but I can't stay much longer,_" Mew said, his voice beginning to fade, "_Yveltal's gone crazy ever since Team Flare ever got a hold of Xerneas. He'd probably blow me to smithereens if I stayed here a millisecond too long. I'm trying to get my immigration papers all set up, but now I need papers for my papers! Gah, this is just crazy,_" he complained. "_I think I've figured out how to stop the visions, too. I'll see what I can do for you._"

I smiled and raised a paw in a sort-of farewell. Mew chuckled, saying "_see you, kid,_" as something changed. I hadn't noticed before, but his presence had affected my dream. My dream meadow faded, and I woke up in the real world.

Trainer was already up and trying to get a fire going with the smoldering remains of our storytime hearth from last night. I shot an Ember at it, flaring it up, and she turned around.

"Hecate! You're awake. I grabbed some brekkie," she said, gesturing to a small pile of Berries that were laying by the fire. I walked over and grabbed one in my jaws. A Mago Berry. As I ate it, I felt some strength seep into my bones. However, when Trainer ate a Mago Berry of her own, she ended up having a… sugar rush, the scientists called it. Bouncing around and generally acting crazy.

I left Trainer to her antics and went over to Epsilon, who was still sleeping. I sat beside her and ran through my dream conversation with Mew in my head.

So I was seeing the other members of our team. Good to know that the one in the first vision wouldn't die. And I had no idea where the second one was. But, I remembered a Wigglytuff, and I heard that they are the Nurses' assistants in Kalos only. _At least we're in the same region_, I thought. And I seriously doubted that the two were the same Pokémon. I added them up in my head and realized we had four out of six possible teammates accounted for so far. We could have four, or five, or six. I had no idea which, unless another vision came with a different team member.

Epsilon began to stir, and I nudged her awake. She did not take it well.

"I'm up!" she shrieked, sitting bolt upright. I jumped and backed away a little bit from her. She glanced around, noticed me, and said "Oh, it's you, kid. Don't do that again." I shrugged, grabbed another Berry from the pile, and sat a good way away from the rest of Team Gecko, eating it. Yes, I was still calling it Team Gecko.

I sighed, looking out into the forest. The air was beginning to get colder. Not cold to me, since the scientists said it would take a temperature of about -100˚ Celsius for me to freeze to death. But there was a definite drop in the temperature. I knew north generally meant cold, but we didn't go that far. Did we? I had no idea.

Sitting there, musing, I heard voices. They were moving closer, not bothering to stay silent.

"- Yeah, I heard what he said. Clear a patch for whatever he's doing. A weapon, I think. Lysandre's crazy," said a voice, "completely crazy. But as long as I get paid, I'm happy."

"I hear you, mate," said a different voice with a slight accent. I ran back to the fire, where Trainer and Epsilon were eating breakfast.

Epsilon looked up from her Berry and saw me. "What's up, kid?" she asked.

"Two guys. They said something about a guy named Lysandre, and that he's crazy, and they're coming this way to clear a patch of forest for a weapon," I explained in one breath, gasping for air at the end. Epsilon shot to her paws, and Trainer stood up too.

"Okay kid. Stay back here. I'm checking on them," ordered Epsilon. I opened my mouth to protest when she interrupted me, saying "I'm a Dark Type. Natural stealth. Pack up camp and get out of here. We'll rendezvous up north," and I stared at her, shocked by her newfound leadership skills for a moment before snapping into action.

I pushed the Berries that had scattered thanks to breakfast into a pile, and dragged Trainer's bag over. She got the idea and started stuffing them into the bag. I tried to put out the fire fully, but gave up when it proved to be too strong.

Trainer picked up her bag, now full of Berries, and we took off. Originally in the wrong direction, until I steered Trainer northwards. We made it far enough so that the camp was out of sight when she stopped.

"Epsilon. We forgot Epsilon," she said, panicking. I shook my head and motioned for her to go onwards. She ignored me and made to go back to the camp. I latched my teeth onto her sneaker and tried to hold her back.

Sadly, she was too strong for me, and soon I was being dragged along for the ride. Eventually, and I'm not proud of this, but to stop Trainer, I had to bite her leg. Hard.

"OW! What the frick?!" she shrieked, and I began trying to drag her back north. "Hey! Hecate, no. Bad fox-dog thing. We. Are. Getting. Epsilon," she growled before hearing the two men, who had made it to our camp.

"So, where do you think these guys went?" asked the one with the accent.

"I dunno," the other replied, "pick a direction."

"Well," mused the first guy, "Victory Road's pretty much a straight shot north from here, so maybe they went there?" His partner must have agreed because soon we heard the sound of twigs snapping underfoot as they made their way, not very stealthily, through the woods. Straight towards us.

We turned and began running. Not full sprint, but fast enough so that we'd outrun the two men who were behind us. We ran for about five minutes, eventually stopping to catch our breaths. The two of us sat there, panting, until the sounds of branches breaking behind us got us moving forwards again.

The pattern continued for roughly an hour, until even Trainer had noticed the shift in temperature. "It's… freezing…" she muttered during one of our rest breaks, shivering. The cold was getting a bit nippy for me as well, but we pressed on.

As we broke through a batch of trees, we emerged onto a meadow. It was huge, with the same tall grass from Route 2 covering almost the entirety of it. A waterfall crashed into a river on the opposite side. I had no idea where we were, but Trainer did.

"The Pokémon Village," she muttered, "we're way too far east." I had no idea what the Pokémon Village was, and the sound of leaves rustling behind us made the two of us jump. "Aw, shit," Trainer said, and I glared at her. Swearing still wasn't right.

Sprinting across the Village, an Absol sprang out at us from the grass. I prepared to shoot an Ember at it until I recognized just who this Absol was. "Espilon!" I cheered.

"Hey, kid. We're getting out of here," she announced, and I mentally facepawed myself. What did she think we were going to do? Let those two guys catch us? "Come on," she said, "exit's this way." She began running to the edge of the meadow, and with a glace towards each other, Trainer and I followed.

The two men burst out from the tree line, gawping at their surroundings for a moment before spotting us.

"Hey, kid! Stop!" For a moment I thought they were talking to me, but then I realized they were talking to Trainer. She froze, and slowly turned around, staring at them.

"And why should I?" she questioned, breaking out in a sprint towards the gap in the woods to our right a split second later, Epsilon and I right at her heels. The men began to give chase, and Epsilon broke off from us, heading back for them.

The Absol disappeared into a patch of grass. The men looked wildly around, trying to spot her. They found her a moment later when she sprang out from the grass behind then, delivering a nasty Night Slash to the backs of their heads. I winced, and went over to inspect the damage with Trainer.

They were out cold, lying on their stomachs. Trainer searched their pockets and found identification cards. "Ryan McWilliam. Team Flare Grunt. ID no. 372948," she read aloud from one of the cards. After searching them some more, she found some money. Pocketing the cash and the card, she stood up and walked away from them.

"Who were those guys?" I asked Epsilon, who was walking beside me.

"Team Flare. A rival group who's for a more 'beautiful' world," she replied, using air claws around the word 'beautiful'. "They've been up and active more over the past year or so, I heard."

"From who?"

"The past," she deadpanned. I glared at her and caught up to Trainer, who reached down and scratched me behind the ears.

At a break in the tree line, a man stood. He had a heavy sky blue coat tied around his neck, and a white tank top over his large stomach. Trainer stopped in her tacks and stared.

"Dumbledore," was all she said.

**Author's Note:**

The part with Flare was completely splapped in there at the last second. THE MUSIC MADE ME DO IT. And I used Mew. ONLY because I wanted to clear up why Hecate's having visions all of a sudden. So YAY for explanations. Reviews are starting to be appreciated (not like they weren't before), but I need to know I have motivation. Luv you guys, and see you next time. :)


	12. IOU2

**Author's Note:**

Over halfway done with Arc 2… and ATOW (at time of writing) I've just posted Episode 1. I need a hobby, and writing counts as one, so I'm doing that. Is that irony? Hypocrisy? Irocrisy? Hypony? The last one actually sounds like a new Pokémon. Hypony, Dragon/Normal type, horsey-looking Pokémon of Doom Death. You hear me, Gamefreak? I'm actually working on a design for it... I'll tell you when I post it on dA.

**River's POV**

Naturally, anything with Percival, Albus, or Wulfric makes me think of Dumbledore, since his full name was Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore (his parents were weird), and I'm a huge Harry Potter nerd. At least the Ice gym leader didn't hear my mutter.

"Hey, kid! Are you here to challenge the gym?" he boomed. I winced a bit, his voice was that physically there.

"Yes, and no," I replied. I hate those types of answers, myself. Hypocrite, much? "I'm trying to get to the Santalune Gym."

Wulfric gave a laugh that registered an 8.9 on the Richter scale. At least. "And you're here?! I'm supposed to be the last Gym leader! Did they reverse the system without telling me?" he growled.

I held my hands up to defend myself from his Icy Wrath of… iciness. "No, the rest of Team Demigod and I got lost in Santalune Forest, so we need to get to Santalune City," I said, gesturing with my hands to the Absol and Fennekin behind me.

"Ah! And you need to get back through to Santalune, I presume," he said, and I almost facepalmed myself. I just said that, bro. Way to point out the obvious.

"Yep, it'd be nice," I said, brushing my way past the Gym Leader and almost making it into the Whispering? Winding? One of those two. I almost made it into the Whisperly Winding Woods before Wulfric put a hand on my shoulder, stopping me.

"Hey, kid, you shouldn't go through those woods," he said. I spun around to face him, and since I'm really tall, we were almost eye to eye.

"And why not?" I asked with a bit of a Sherlock-y British accent to make it sound more inquisitive. Wulfric sighed and let me go. He called out to me just before I walked into the forest. Getting seriously ticked, I turned around. "What?"

The Gym Leader held out a Pokéball. "My Jynx here can teleport us back," he deadpanned. I stared, really embarrassed and self-conscious.

"Thanks," I said sheepishly, and Wulfric released his Jynx.

It came up to my chest, which was a bit bigger than I'd expected it to be. It looked up at me, its huge pink lips slightly agape. It was sort of cute when it looked like that, almost like one of those depressed puppies you see for those animal abuse documentaries. I don't like the abuse, they just look so depressingly adorable.

I returned Epsilon and Hecate in their Pokéballs, and, just before the two of us teleported out of the Village, I remembered the grunts. "Hey, Wulfric?" I said, "what should we do about those guys?" I gestured to them, unconscious and pretty much obscured by the meadow, and Wulfric laughed.

"Just leave 'em there. They'll go whining back to their boss when they wake up," he said with a chuckle.

"You mean Lysandre?" I asked. Wulfric immediately stopped laughing and stared at me with a shocked expression. "What?"

The Ice Trainer glared at me, growling "Lysandre is the best man I know. You do not joke about that sort of thing." I shied away from him and his Jynx, who looked ready to psychically blast me into the next millennia. Not so cute when it's ready to kill you at the drop of a hat.

"Okay, okay, sorry," I muttered apologetically under my breath. "Will we go now?" Wulfric nodded gravely as I took a hold of the Jynx's hand glove, and, for the second time ever, I teleported away.

Thankfully, all my limbs and Pokéballs stayed on me as we passed through the rainbow tunnel thing that you go through. I looked around, staring at the rainbow of… teleporty-ness. It still looked awesome, and will forever be awesome.

As quickly as we teleported out of the Village, we landed, with a stumble, in front of the Gym. I gave Wulfric a quick thank you and walked away, only to stop short after about five steps.

"Hey, Wulfric?" I asked, "I don't think you use your Jynx in Gym Battles. Why not?"

"There's a law in Kalos," he answered, "that signifies the number of Pokémon Gym leaders are allowed to use in battle. Since I have three, and that's the limit, I can't use my Jynx here," he said, patting the Jynx on her head, almost crushing it, and definitely ruining its hair.

"Oh," was all I said, as Team Demigod (who I had released from their Pokéballs) and I began to walk towards Route 21. "See you." I gave a backwards wave to the Gym Leader, who was opening his doors for the somewhat long line of challengers.

_-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-oo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-_

**Route 21, Mountain Kalos, Kalos Region (Still River POV)**

We stuck to the main road, avoiding the tall grass at all costs. Some of which included bargaining with the other Trainers heading on their own journeys to leave us alone. I lost about 975 P there.

_Now I can't get a large soda at McDonald's, _I joked/whined in my head as we came across the biggest. Bear. Ever.

I've seen a bear up close once before, when I took piano lessons from a lady in town. One day I went in, looked out the window, and saw a black bear poking through a neighbor's garden. The boy who took lessons before me and I stared at it out the window until the cops herded it back into the mountains nearby.

Sadly, there were no cops to save my hide here. And this bear looked ticked. I backed away a step, my brain racking through all the bear survival tips I've picked up.

_Don't look the bear in the eyes._ Check. I stared at the giant golden ring in the center of the bear's stomach.

_Pull up a hood, sweatshirt, etc._ _to make yourself seem bigger and more intimidating. _Not so much of a check. All I had was a sleeveless vest and a hat, so I was still as small, meek, and tasty-looking as ever.

_Back away slowly._ Check. I was, at least. Hecate and Epsilon, however, were bristling, ready to attack.

I sighed, sensing a battle. Then I called out "Epsilon! Bite! Hecate, Ember spam!" The Absol sprang into action immediately. Hecate, however, looked at me curiously until I elaborated, saying "use Ember over and over again." There wasn't PP here, right?

The Ursaring, almost immediately dubbed Smokey, took a Bite to the leg, which caused it to stagger a bit. The endless barrage of fireballs (apparently there wasn't PP) nailing it in the face repeatedly singed his fur and made him all Smokey (ba-dum pschhh). I was way too overexcited; we were winning our first tough wild Pokémon battle, sure, but really. I was bouncing around like I had eaten ten Oran Berries.

And Smokey retaliated. A huge paw came flying through the air and nailed Epsilon on the side of the head. Sort of thankfully, it was the side with the face scythe, so Smokey got some free karma. However, Epsilon was out cold. I pulled her back in her Pokéball and called to Hecate.

"Hecate! You can do it!" I shouted, rummaging through my bag, searching for a Revive, or… nothing else doesn't really cure faintedness, so I needed a Revive. As I was searching, I didn't notice that Smokey had used another paw-slap on Hecate, and she collapsed in front of me. Staggering to her feet, she let out a stubborn "Fen!"

I didn't think she'd survive another onslaught. "Hecate, we're gonna have to leave. Come on!" She didn't budge. "Hecate…" I said with a dangerous undertone, "Come." She stayed frozen. I was about to return her to her Pokéball when I heard a new voice from behind me.

"Gabrielle! Venoshock!" I had no idea who Gabrielle was, until a green… thing sprang out in front of Hecate and sprayed poison out of her rose bouquet hand things towards Smokey, occupying it. A Roserade. Probably my favorite Grass Pokémon, besides Treecko or Bayleaf.

I managed to stammer out a "th-thanks…" to the mystery Trainer, who offered a hand to me. I grabbed it and used it to pull myself up, and I saw the guy who probably saved Hecate's life.

He had auburn hair stuck up in tall spikes, had gray eyes, and wore a smirk on his face. He looked kind of familiar, but I couldn't place his name or where I knew him from. "What are you still doing with a Fennekin on Route 21?" he asked me. I blushed a little bit (does this mean there's a love square?) and shakily replied with a stupid grin on my face.

"I got lost in Santalune Forest. Ended up here," I said, "and I'm trying to get to Santalune City. Again, thanks for keeping saving Hecate from Smokey."

His smug look turned into one of confusion. "Smokey? Is he yours?" I shook my head, and when he still looked confused, I explained.

"Giving everything that doesn't have a name one is a habit of mine," I said sheepishly. "But the Fennekin is mine. I also have an Absol, but she's out cold right now, and I have no Revives, so I really need one. I'm River, by the way."

The other Trainer introduced himself and his Roserade, who was battling Smokey. "I'm Gary, and the Roserade over there is… oh, crap," he said as he watched his Pokémon take a nasty hit from Smokey and collapse. "Gabrielle!" he called, running over to her (I doubt any boys are named Gabrielle. Gabriel, sure, but not Gabrielle) and kneeling beside her.

In the meantime, I was poking through my bag, looking for a couple HP restoring Berries. My fingers closed around a couple Oran Berries, and I pretty much stuffed them in Hecate's mouth. She choked them down, getting a spurt of energy as they did their Berry-y magic.

"Hecate, Ember!" I ordered, and the Fennekin happily obliged. Smokey focused his attention on Hecate after getting a fireball to the face. "Keep Smokey occupied!" She danced around, dodging the paws that were coming down sloppier and sloppier.

Gary's voice came out from behind, saying "Travis! Water Pulse!" I heard a growl in response, and a split second later I was drenched. Hecate, thankfully, had noticed the attack and hid behind Smokey, who ended up as soaked as I was. She popped out from behind, as dry as she normally was. Lucky fox.

Fire wasn't going to work now, so I ordered her to "Scratch!" Hecate, with a leap that brought her up to Smokey's face (does that make her SuperFox?), used her tiny, but razor-sharp claws to scratch him over his eye. Smokey swatted her off of his face with a roar, and Hecate landed hard. She retreated, shooting the occasional fiery potshot at his face, which did nothing (seeing as his face was still soaking wet) but make him ticked off.

Thankfully, Travis showed up, and I discovered that he was a Blastoise when he used Rock Smash, right on Smokey's belly ring. He doubled over, and eventually collapsed, unconscious. I scooped up Hecate, who was still bouncing eagerly on her toes, and hugged her.

"We did it! Thanks Gary, and Travis, and Gabrielle," I said.

"No problem. So where are you headed?" Gary asked.

"Santalune City. Got lost in the forest, and ended up in the Pokémon Village," I explained as quickly as possible. Gary smirked, and I immediately got ticked off. "What's so funny? And where exactly have I seen you before?"

Gary smiled, and replied "I got lost in the forest, too. Three days of wandering around the woods with Logan." At my confused expression, he added "my Blaziken."

I looked at him suspiciously. "Are you a Hokie?"

"A what?"

"A Hokie. Someone who's from Hoenn," I explained. Gary shook his head no. "So where are you from?"

"Kanto," he said, and was about to continue before I cut him off, remembering his name.

"Gary Oak!" I exclaimed. "What are you doing in Kalos?"

He looked at me oddly. "First of all, how do you know my name, and secondly, I came here because I've already beaten Unova." Oh, crap. How did I know him?! I mean, I knew how I knew, the anime and Pokémon Red and Blue and stuff, but Gary would never believe that! I racked through my brains, remembering all I knew about him, which wasn't much. After a moment or two, I gave an answer.

"I saw you challenge the Kantonian Elite Four on TV. You're grandfather's the head Professor there, right?" Gary nodded tensely; must have been a tough subject. "Hey, if you have one, I kind of really need a Revive for my Absol. I can pay you back," I said, reaching for the 25P left in my bag.

Gary reached into his own pocket and pulled out a little spiky yellow… thing. He handed it to me, saying "you don't have to pay me." He pressed it into my palm and began to walk away before I called out to him.

"Is this a Max Revive?" Gary nodded tersely without turning around. "Dude, I can't take this for nothing!"

"Yes, you can." He began to walk away again, heading for Route 22. I started to run, eventually catching up to him, frantically scribbling down something on the pad of paper I kept in my bag just in case.

I finished writing my HoloCast number, and handed it to him, saying "I owe you two, Gary. Stop being Batman; giving justice for free."

Gary stopped, turning to me with a confused face. "It's Swoobatman," he said matter-of-factly. That proved to be too much for me, and I broke out into laughter. Watching me wheeze, he asked "what's so funny with Swoobatman?"

Gasping for breath, I replied "funniest. Superhero. EVER." After a minute or two, I straightened up again, looking him in the eye as if I had never laughed in the first place. "But dude. I owe you two, for saving my Pokémon and for giving me a free Max Revive. Call me if you need anything. 'Kay?" Gary nodded and began to walk towards Route 22 again. I smiled, thinking of Swoobatman again, and pulled Epsilon out of her Pokéball.

Giving her the Max Revive that made my hand bleed a bit (those spiky things were not dull), I sat there, Hecate and I watching her as she woke up like a pair of stalkers. Are there even pairs? I know there are gangs of fangirls but I've never heard of a pair of stalkers working to get a pair of Justin Bieber's socks.

Of course, Epsilon immediately sprang to her feet when she woke up, almost scalping me. I think she actually sliced off a chunk of my hair. After making sure I wasn't bleeding or dying or anything,Team Demigod got up and began to walk towards Santalune City, somewhat slowly, since Hecate had a minor limp thanks to Smokey.

A few minutes later, we walked into the gate to Route 22, on the right track for our Pokémon journey.

**Author's Note:**

Gabriella is modeled after my Roserade in X, Fleur, and Travis the Blastoise is modeled after Trent the Blastoise. Gary Oak is modeled after the Gary Motherfucking Oak (yes, his initials are GMO) of Red and Blue. Never played the game, actually. I got into Pokémon in the 4th generation. Still love Paul more. He is the competitive battler who can't have weak Pokémon within us all.

Shoutout to craigprime for giving me the idea of Gary Oak. No, he is not the mystery character from Ep. 8, or 10 (you still have to wait for Arc 4), but I had a random OC here, and I decided to use Gary instead. Thanks, man. Suggestions are taken into consideration, so post an idea in the reviews if you have one. Let the people participate, since without you guys, I wouldn't be writing this story today. Luvs you all. :)


	13. The Dangers of Dunsparce

**Author's Note:**

Behold… the results of nearly two weeks of procrastination. Last episode I said I'd posted Episode 6… At time of completion I'm at Episode 11. So much anticontinuity it burns… Seriously, I need an ambulance. (not really, in case you were reaching for a phone to call 911 (you DO care!))

On a side note, 500 Views! OMG I love you all! You all deserve a cookie. Or two. Or ten. Seriously, though, you're awesome. :)

**Epsilon's POV**

Sure, I was proud of Hecate for standing up to the Ursaring, but I was the one who'd fainted. With a bruised pride and side of my face, I was kind of down on myself, and the others noticed.

"Come on, Epsilon, cheer up!" said Hecate, bouncing around in front of me in an attempt to get me in higher spirits. I sighed.

"Trying, kid. I'm trying," I replied.

"No, you're not," Hecate said with a pout. I rolled my eyes and walked into the tunnel that River entered, the Fennekin following close behind.

The inside was relatively empty. Several sofas sat across from a desk, which a lady sat behind. Halfway down, a fork in the road appeared, one way straight ahead, the other going right. We walked down it, heading straight, when a man I hadn't noticed before stopped River.

"Hey, you heading into Victory Road?" he asked, River shook her head no. "If you want to enter, you're gonna have to beat me."

"Dude, I'm heading to Santalune," River said. The man looked at her for another moment, then let her pass.

"Sorry, just had to make sure. Over the past two weeks, five incompetent Trainers have snuck into Victory Road. They had to get four out with helicopters, which drove the police crazy."

"What about the last one?" River asked. The man sighed and looked her in the eye.

"We still haven't found him." We all gulped and walked through the tunnel quickly. Once on the other side, River sat us all down for a talk.

She said "Okay, guys, the forest sucked. In new Pokémon terms. And pretty much all other terms. So, we can find us a Riolu here, which is one of my personal favorite Pokémon. You guys want one?" I shrugged; anything but, I dunno, well, anything, really, was fine by me. Hecate shrugged as well. "Thank you for your helpful feedback." River sighed. "Let's find us a Riolu!"

Turns out this was much easier said than done, seeing as we'd been poking around in the grass for at least two hours and so far had nothing. I was just about to give up and head back to the main path when I spotted a patch of rustling grass. I crept towards it, ready to pounce, when a giant boulder, seemingly from nowhere, came rolling straight towards me.

"Aw, shit!" I yelled, ignoring proper language, which earned me a glare from Hecate. Her eyes soon grew wide as she saw the rock coming down on me, which I leaped over. "Where are you hiding?" I growled after twisting around, finding that the boulder had disappeared.

Another boulder, bigger and faster than the one that had come at me before, came barreling down on me. I dodged to the side, the boulder bulldozing past me, and this time I kept my eyes on it.

The boulder, after skidding to a stop, shed itself. A thin sheet of pure rock fell off the outer edge of the boulder, revealing a yellow… thing underneath. It was curled in a ball, about the same size as the rock, and slowly unrolled.

The thing was huge. Its body, laid out straight, was easily longer than I was tall. There was a large, elliptical head with closed eyes, and a pointed tail on the two sides of the Pokémon's Seviper-like body. I cocked my head to the side, wondering exactly what in the name of Arceus this thing was.

"What… is that thing?" Hecate had the same general line of thought as me, apparently. The thing curled itself into a ball again, a thin sheet of rock forming over its rolled-up body.

"Rollout!" I called, realizing the move's name. I turned my head, sort of facing the others for some unknown reason when announcing it, hiding the boulder, and a sickening pain shot into my side. The Rollout had hit, and it was fully charged.

I barely managed to stay on my paws, and swayed a bit before gaining my balance again. The Pokémon, which had lost its rock shell after hitting me, lay prone on the ground in front of me.

Staring at it, I wondered how on Earth this thing managed to nearly knock me out. Its yellow-lidded eyes were closed, the wings in the center of its body feebly flapping. I hesitantly poked it with a claw, seeing if it would respond.

As I did so, the Pokémon began to curl into a ball yet again. I barely managed to pull my paw back before it could get trapped in the layer of rock that soon covered it. It began to spin, and I quickly jumped out of the way.

The boulder continued on its path of destruction for about fifteen yards, then skidded to a halt. I bounded after it, prepared to strike when the thing came back out again. As I predicted, the sheet dissipated, leaving the yellow thing on the ground, looking like it couldn't even hurt a Flabébé. I bounded forwards, claws outstretched, ready to deliver the final blow. My paws took on a purplish glow, a Shadow Claw ready to hit.

Nothing. Like the colossal idiot I am, my Shadow Claw went right through the Pokémon. So it was a Normal Type. What other type would actually have something like this? Fairy, maybe. Fighting, it's possible, they're all stupid anyways. But no, only Normal Types can have this thing in their lineup. And I just had to use a Ghost move on it. Genius.

So instead, I began to sprint straight at the thing, my body beginning to blur with the speed of my Quick Attack. In just the way I now expect my luck to go, the thing began to curl into a ball, preparing for another Rollout. Did this thing know any other moves?

Right before my Quick Attack hit its target, the bloody rock layer (the rock wasn't actually bleeding, it was an insult) had to form over the thing. My outstretched paws slammed into the rock at near terminal velocity, and I heard a nasty _CRACK_. I felt nothing for a moment, and got an Ice Beam ready.

Then my paws started to kill me. A horrible, throbbing pain coursed through them as I released my Ice Beam. Somehow, it still hit its target, and the thing's pointed tail was encased in a block of ice, since it had unrolled itself after I Quick Attacked it. I could have cared less, since I was ready to slice off my front paws to stop the pain. I staggered away slowly, and a fireball hit the thing as I was making my sloppy retreat. Hecate. Finally managed to show up, after I had managed to injure myself.

The thing tried to do another Rollout, but a second fireball as it was curling up stopped its attempt. The rock layer still formed, but it was a glowing, molten red. It screeched and immediately shed its new skin. I tried to grin, but it turned into a grimace, thanks to my throbbing paws.

Pretty soon an endless barrage of Embers hit the thing, and it brought a sort of grim pleasure with it. After a while, a charred husk was all that remained. Only unconscious, mind you; even the worst of Normal types can hold their own under an onslaught of fire. I began to painfully limp back towards River and Hecate, who were both staring at the thing.

"Dunsparce," was all River said after a few moments. "Anyone want it on the team?" Hecate and I both shook our heads **no**. I would take a… Burmy over this. I would take a Magikarp over this. I would take Arceus itself over that. Well, Arceus would be very helpful on the team, but you get my point. That thing was not going on Team Gecko under any circumstances.

River continued, saying "So do you guys still want to find a Riolu?" The other members of Team Demigod shrugged, mine becoming a wince as my paws decided to start killing me again. River noticed and knelt down to inspect me.

I hadn't really bothered fully examining my paws, since I was pretty sure they were broken, and they already hurt like all get out. But I finally steeled myself and looked down at them.

It was not normal. My claws were bent, some had even snapped off, leaving jagged stubs. Both of my paws were bent at an awkward angle, the front half almost perpendicular to the back. They were both compressed in on themselves, being maybe ¾ of their original size. After a couple seconds of just staring at my disfigured paws, I blacked out.

I woke up in my grotto. The same exact one from the mountainside all those weeks ago. The stone walls somewhat comforted me, but they also reminded me of the loneliness of this place. I stayed in there for a moment, nostalgia overwhelming me, and I went to go outside.

And promptly collapsed. My damn paws were still broken. Glaring at them, I settled down and waited to leave to… wherever I'd go.

What seemed like an eternity of boredom passed. It was probably around an hour, but it felt like ten. I don't know, and I don't care. I would have tried to go to sleep or something, but my paws were still killing me, and I'd never be able to rest with them bugging me.

Instead, I stared at my grotto walls, remembering how simple everything was before. It was pleasant, but there was much more to life than that, and I was experiencing it firstpaw. I wouldn't exchange this for the world. Or would I? The world is awfully valuable…

My debate was cut short when everything vanished in a white light. I stood up, and immediately gritted my teeth as a sharp jolt of pain came from my paws. After a moment of disorientation, everything formed around me again, creating an entirely new landscape.

I was in a room with whitewashed walls, standing on a hospital bed. A lady with pink hair tucked under her white nurse's cap was observing me along with a Wigglytuff who was standing beside her, its bright blue eyes barely coming over the top of the mat's edge. River and Hecate were sitting in chairs on the opposite sides.

"-Needs surgery," the pink-haired lady was saying. "Normally, we'd have our on-site Alakazam telekinetically fix the bones, which would take around a minute, but since your Absol's a Dark type…" she continued, trailing off.

River held up her hand. "Lemme guess, open-paw surgery?" The lady nodded grimly, and I froze. Surgery? I hated surgery. It was probably my biggest phobia. Scalpels and I did _not _get along.

Nevertheless, an hour later, I was lying on a surgical table, various instruments on a tray next to me. An Oddish and Leavanny, with surgical masks over their mouths, were in the operating room along with the pink-haired lady and her Wigglytuff, wearing the same masks.

"Oddish, Sleep Powder!" the lady ordered, and the Oddish obliged. A cloud of shimmering golden powder, thanks to the Oddish, settled on the table around me. Instantly, my vision began to fade. I blinked rapidly, trying to stay awake, but I slowly collapsed, succumbing to the powder.

It wasn't sleeping, it was hovering between the realms of consciousness and unconsciousness. To the steady beat of my throbbing paws, I slipped in between a world of black and one of gray. Occasionally, my vision would clear enough to make out the pink-haired lady's silhouette or her assistants', hunched over in front of me, working on my paws. However, I'd fall back into the sea of gray a moment later, losing the picture.

This went on for who knows how long, until I finally woke up fully in a different room. My paws were still killing me, but much less so. A hazy glance down at them showed them to be wrapped up in bandages, as white as the fur it covered. Looking up, I saw River and Fennekin sitting across the room, grinning when they saw I'd woken up.

"Hey kid," I grunted, attempting to stand up. It ended up being futile as I ended up back on the bed a few seconds later. "So, how've you been?"

Hecate looked at me like I was crazy. I don't really blame her. "Um… I've just been waiting for you to wake up. You've been out for about six hours," she said.

Hearing that made me bolt to my paws, ignoring the protests from my newly unbroken bones. "Six hours! Why'd you let me sleep for so long?!"

"Since you just underwent surgery and I didn't want to accidentally kill you or something." Good point. I grinned and leapt off the mat I was on, landing with an odd _thump _on the hard tile floor, thanks to my bandages. "So, do you wanna go see Olaf? He's in the same building as us," said Hecate.

"Sure," I replied, not really caring one way or the other. Hecate smiled and made for the door, and I started to follow her.

Much easier said than done. The bandages were rounded on the bottom, so whenever I took a step, I'd wobble on my paws for a moment, trying to get my balance. This made for some extremely slow progress as I worked my way across the room.

After seeing this for maybe five minutes, River took pity on me and, using my Pokéball, sent me back to my old grotto.

So this was inside a Pokéball? This machine could see inside my memories and recreate my old home? That was partly sweet of it and partly creepy. But way more creepy.

Being inside the Pokéball was incredibly boring. Nothing to do but stare at the walls. Thankfully, my time in here now was much shorter than the last, and within a few minutes, I was out again.

I was released in a room much like my own, but the thing on the bed was almost completely wrapped in bandages. Staring at the lump, I realized who was Kakuna'd in there.

"Olaf."

**Author's Note:**

Oh my Arceus I made it through. I finished the episode! YAY! I feel like I should get a medal for "excessive perseverance" or something. Maybe a purple diamond. Like a purple heart, but you can get it if you're still alive. Now I just have to write the next one. Good luck, me. ATOP (at time of posting), I'm like halfway through.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not giving up on it, I may just end up having to take a short hiatus to get my act together and get a bigger episode buffer. Reviews show me that you guys still want to see an ending for this just as much as I do, so do it.


	14. Hospital Hijinks

**Author's Note:**

Oh my Arceus this was hard. I wrote about 500 words, decided I hated it, deleted all but like 150, made it to 1500 words, decided I hated it, and started from scratch. Yep, I wrote this entire episode the day it was posted. YAY! Which is why I suspect this will be the last episode of the Arc. I need a break, and I also want to draw a better profile pic. Sadly, Mal from TDAS does not make the best Pokémon fanfic cover, however much I love it.

**Hecate's POV**

Epsilon and I tentatively walked up to the Kakuna'd form of Olaf lying on the hospital bed. Stopping a few feet away from it, as I peered up at the edge of the hard white mattress that loomed high above me, I quietly asked "Olaf? Are you there?"

A somewhat muffled voice responded back to me, saying "Oh, hi, Hecate! How've you been?" I grinned, realizing that my friend was actually alive and somewhat well.

Summarizing the fine details of our journey in Santalune Forest, I told him about our adventures ever since he'd landed himself in this hospital. I recounted the two weeks of doing nothing but wandering, the chat with Hoopa in the Tree, and being chased by the two Team Flare guys across the meadow where we met 'Dumbledore', whoever he was. However, I omitted the vision/flashbacks and the dream conversation with Mew, because frankly, who would believe that?

I ended my tale on Epsilon's recent paw breakage and surgery, and after a few moments of silence once I'd finished, Olaf spoke up.

"Cool. Nurse Joy said I'd be out of the cast in about a week, and then I'll be almost good to go and challenge the Gym leader!" he said, still somehow cheery even though he'd been in the same bed for two weeks. He was either very tough, or just mentally unable to be down on himself. I was leaning more towards the second theory.

Epsilon, however, was skeptical. "What do you mean, almost?"

"I have to go through therapy for about three weeks after, but it'll make me super strong!" Epsilon and I exchanged a glance. I thought therapy just made your muscles stronger after surgery or a broken limb. Not in like, battling terms.

"Neat," I said, "so how has Calem been?"

"He's been good. He stays for a few hours each day, and we talk."

As if on cue, Calem stood up from the chair he was sitting in, and with Trainer following, walked over to the edge of Olaf's bed. He leaned over the bed a bit, and said "Hey, Olaf. You remember River? You saw her on Routes 1 and 2."

Olaf responded brightly, saying "Hi, River! Nice to see you!"

Trainer slapped her hands over her mouth, staring at the bundle of bandages lying on the bed. "Oh my god," she said in a hushed whisper.

"God?" Calem asked her curiously. Trainer sighed and turned to him.

"Oh my Arceus, look at Olaf," she repeated somewhat sarcastically. Calem seemed to accept it and knelt down to see Epsilon and me.

He smiled, saying "Hi guys. So how've you been?" I shrugged, not really knowing any way else to communicate with him.

Calem noticed the language barrier, and after an awkward moment of silence, straightened up again.

"How long has Olaf been like this?!" River asked.

"About two weeks. I've HoloCast Sycamore, and he told me that he'd send one of his Pokémon from his lab in Lumiose City," he replied.

"If he sent you the Squirtle, something is going to blow up," Trainer stated. Calem paled a bit and raised his hands in the air in a sign of defense.

"I don't know which one he sent me, so sorry in advance if I do get his Squirtle," he said apologetically A moment later, he tilted his head to the side, asking her "How do you know he has a Squirtle?"

Trainer shrugged, as if it were common knowledge. "Sycamore studies Mega Evolution, and Blaziken and the traditional Kanto starters are the only typical starter Pokémon who can Mega Evolve, so he'd probably have them," she explained.

"Oh," Calem said, "that makes sense."

Trainer smiled and replied by saying "Yes. It does." There was an awkward moment of silence where no one knew what to say, until Olaf broke it.

"Hey, that Sigilyph looks funny!" he said, causing us all to look at him, wondering if any of the medications he was on made you hallucinate. He must have noticed the quiet, and elaborated. "That Sigilyph out the window looks funny."

We all walked over to the window to see if Olaf was right. There was a Sigilyph floating outside the window, so it was at least partly true. I was about to turn away from the window, seeing that nothing was really abnormal about it, until, taking one last glance, I saw that it was-

"Shiny!" Trainer was halfway out the door before turning back to Calem. "Hey, you want me to catch it for you?" She asked him.

Calem shook his head, saying "No, you take it. They're really rare, anyways."

"One in eight thousand ninety-two-ish odds," recited Trainer, and we all stared at her for a moment. "What? I remember random things like that," she muttered before sprinting out the door in hunt of the shiny, with Epsilon and I in hot, wobbly (at least in Epsilon's case) pursuit.

Dashing down the stairs and bolting out the doors, Team Gecko ran outside to find the Sigilyph. We sprinted a full lap around the Pokémon Center, searching for it in the skies. Trainer and I became too exhausted after one lap to continue running, so we ended up going at a slow jog, scanning the air above us. Epsilon was already going incredibly slowly, although she had gotten better at running with her bound paws.

On the second lap, we spotted it hovering on the far side of the Center, flapping its wings idly. Trainer pulled out the Premier Ball that I forgot she had, and lobbed it at the Sigilyph.

It came nowhere close. Barely reaching halfway up the building, the Premier Ball came sailing back down towards us as gravity overpowered it. The Pokéball nearly hit me on the head during its descent, but I leaped out of the way before it could. It hit the ground as Epsilon and I turned, glaring at Trainer who Mareepishly grinned.

"To the roof!" she ordered. The three of us turned around and sprinted back to the Center's entrance.

After climbing the dozen or so flights of stairs, which was grueling, Team Gecko burst out onto the Pokémon Center's roof, looking around wildly. We saw the Sigilyph almost lazily flying past the edge of the roof. Trainer threw the Premier Ball at it, only for it to bounce back.

It lay on the roof for a moment before splitting in two, right on its hinge. Trainer collapsed on the ground in exaggerated anger, her fists in the air above her.

"Noooo! That Premier Ball cost me… nothing, actually," she said. "But… Did the Premier Ball just not work because I didn't weaken it, or is it-" her musings were cut short when a new voice rang out.

"Hey! The Sigilyph's mine!" A boy came running out from the stairway, making for the shiny. "I was grabbing a soda!" he explained, holding up a can to prove it.

Trainer held up her hands, saying "Sorry, man. I thought it was wild. So, where'd you get it, anyways?"

"I found him on Route 10," the boy said proudly, "and raised him myself."

"Oh. Sorry for trying to catch your Pokémon," apologized Trainer, who was backing away towards the stairs to the lower floors of the Pokémon Center.

The boy shrugged. "It happens a lot. Sorry I wasted your Pokéball."

Gesturing for Epsilon and I to come to her, Trainer said "It was a Premier Ball; it was free anyways. See you, maybe…" she trailed off. Trainer reached the stairway and began to climb down, the other members of Team Gecko following.

We climbed down several flights of stairs, heading back to Olaf's floor, a bit embarrassed at thinking that the shiny was wild. But, hey, everyone makes mistakes, right?

As we walked into Olaf's room, Calem asked "Did you catch the shiny?" the moment he saw us.

"Nope," replied Trainer, "it was some other kid's."

"Oh. Sorry for your… loss?"

Trainer shrugged, saying "It's not a loss. It's a gain of the knowledge that ninety-nine percent of shinies you see in a highly populated area are going to be owned by someone. The other one percent are just spray painted phonies." Calem grinned at her remark, and I had to suppress a laugh myself.

"So, has Olaf received any miraculous healing spurt while we were away?" asked Trainer. Calem shook his head no, and the mood dampened again.

There was a moment of awkward silence (today seemed to be just full of those), and I walked over to Olaf's bed, which he was still stuck in.

"Olaf," I said, "I think that we'll be heading to the Gym soon, so, bye, and I wish you a speedy recovery." I raised a paw in a wave goodbye, even though Olaf couldn't see it.

"Okay!" he replied, "See you soon!" I smiled and made for the doorway, and after a goodbye to Calem from Trainer, the three of us left the Pokémon Center.

Outside the Center, Trainer said, while pointing to the big golden-roofed building a few blocks away, "Okay, guys, that there is what I presume to be the Santalune Bug Photography Gym." That was a mouthful. "We are going to go in there and conquer that Gym! Actually no, not really," she clarified, "I'm pretty sure that's illegal. But we are going to get the Bug Badge! Let's go!"

And with that speech to motivate us, Team Gecko went out to defeat their first Gym and be on their way to beating the Champion of Kalos.

**Author's Note:**

Sorry for such a short episode with such a rushed ending, but I was running out of time. Like, this was completed thirteen minutes before publishing. So a quick shoutout to procrastination for motivating me to do other things instead of writing. I love you, man. :)

The Sigilyph was modeled after the Sigilyphs on Route 10 in Kalos, since I grinded my team up to like level 30 on that Route for Grant, and Sigilyphs are perfect for grinding. And it was shiny because I wanted it to be.

This is the end of the Arc, so I'll be off for a week to do other stuff. IMA GONNA MISS YOU! Reviews appreciated, as are Favorites, Follows, and Subscribes. You know what, I think I just may call my fans subscribers. I have no idea why.

See you next week!


	15. X-Ray Rotom

_I got the Eye of the Tiger,_

_A fighter, Dancing through the fire,_

'_Cause I am a Champion_

_And you're gonna hear me_

_Roar_

**River's POV**

We left the Pokémon Center pumped up and ready to beat Viola and her bugs to the ground. Except for her Vivillon because that was a Flying type and immune to Ground, but I think moves like Slam work, and I'm like 99% sure that a move exists where the user smacks any flying/floating Pokémon to the ground.

My spirit crumbled the moment I saw the actual front of the Gym. Those big yellow strips of police tape that endlessly repeat CAUTION, or POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS covered the door. The only difference to them here was that they had little Voltorb separating the CAUTION's who were pretty adorable.

"Dangit!" I shouted, drawing the attention of the passerby. I walked over to another trainer (they have Pokéballs on their belts and numerous bruises and cuts as the results of training), and asked what was going on.

"Team Flare," she said, as if that answered everything. It did answer most of it, though. "They attacked the Gym, and the cops are in there looking for bombs."

I sighed, sensing a long time until all of them were found since the police force doesn't have any Psychic Types or anything to telekinetically locate the bombs. Were there any X-Ray themed Pokémon who could seriously help with these kinds of situations? I began to run through ideas in my head for one. A Psychic type Rotom evolution, maybe?

"My guess is that you are also waiting to challenge Viola," I stated. The girl nodded, and I asked "What did you get as a starter from… wherever you get a starter?"

The girl pulled out a Pokéball from her belt, and let out what I assumed was her starter. In a flash of white light, came out the tallest Heracross I have ever seen.

I normally assumed Heracross to be maybe a meter tall (yard just sounds weird, and they're basically the same thing). But no, its horn came right up to my eyeballs. And when it turned around, nearly took them with it.

Stepping back from the tank of pointy, buggy death, I said "Nice. I assume you're fighting Bug with Bug?"

The girl nodded. "That, and fighting Bug with Thunder for the Vivillon."

If she had a Pikachu, most respect for her and her Heracross would vanish instantly. I was repeatedly praying to every important deity-like figure in the Pokémon World (yes, even Professor Oak) that it was not.

Now, let me get this straight. I do not hate Pikachu. I hate all the attention Pikachu gets. If Ash Ketchum had started with a Charmander in Kanto, Charmander would be the one Pokémon who gets to say their name. If Ash Ketchum had started out with a Dunsparce, you could make a PR Video of that thing flapping around for ten seconds, even though Dunsparce debuted in Generation 2.

I don't hate Pikachu, but I hate the situation Ash put him in. It was all Ash's fault. And it somehow crossed the interdimensional time-space continuum rift that I had gone through and blossomed into the most beautiful hate flower in existence. Like the Corpse flower, but less physical stench and more attention stench.

"So, what kind of Thunder are you using?" I questioned cautiously. The girl looked at me a little funny (I was very cautious) and released the Pokémon in what I noticed was an Ultra Ball.

And out came an Emolga. They were slightly less irritating than Pikachu itself, but the fact that they made a knockoff of it every new Generation was kind of annoying. Especially Dedenne. Just... just... no mercy for the miniature Raichu.

It floated around like the little flying squirrel thing that it was, occasionally shooting off miniature bolts of electricity that nearly took off my eyebrows every so often. I have to admit, it was pretty adorable.

"This is my Emolga, Hattie. Hattie, this is…" the girl trailed off. "What's your name, anyways?"

I held out my hand to the girl. "I'm River," I told her.

"Lily." We shook hands as the sun set behind the closed-off Gym. We both returned our Pokémon, and sat down at an outside table at a nearby resturant, chatting.

"So," she asked, over a cup of Poké-Cola. "Where are you from?" Tough question. Wow, I never thought I'd consider where my home was as a tough question. After a moment of thought, I answered.

"Unova."

"Oh," she said. "I hear they're still cleaning up after Plasma was defeated."

I had no idea Plasma was defeated here (I knew they were in the games (if you got that far (I never did))). So I said "We left before then. My mom's had to move around a lot." Wasn't exactly going to toss the fact that my 'mom' was a famous Rhyhorn racer who probably was the Pokémon equivalent of Danika Patrick.

Lily shrugged and switched the subject. "How long have you been on your journey for?"

"About two weeks," I responded.

Lily smiled, saying "A month. I had to travel from Lumiose City to here." I raised an eyebrow, refusing to believe that Route 4 was as dangerous as she made it seem. "Those Roller Skating people are deadly," she elaborated after noticing my disbelieving stare.

"Wait," I said, "where exactly can you get said Roller Skates at?"

"They have a shop here in Santalune City," Lily replied, pointing over at what was evidently the Roller Skate shop.

"So they're like Heelies, right?"

"Heelies?" Lily asked with a confused look on her face. Heelies were those things that had the wheels in the heels of sneakers so you could skate with them, right? They were like, _really _old anyways.

I told her that "They have a wheel in the heel of them. They're like regular sneakers in pretty much every other way, though."

Lily shrugged. "I think so. I have to get a pair, and also maybe a new hat or something at the shop they have here. Wanna come?"

I shook my head **no**. "Are they at the same shop?" I asked after a moment of contemplation. Lily nodded. "So yes, then," I said, and Lily grinned.

"Come on!" she exclaimed, standing up (and knocking the chair backwards into the guy behind her) and dragging me by the elbow to where the shop evidently was. Just outside the door, I managed to find some purchase on the sidewalk with my ratty shoes.

I tried to slow down, saying "I don't have any money." Lily froze, let go of my arm, and let me collapse to the ground.

As I staggered to my feet (sidewalks were _hard_), I saw a pair of bright green eyes staring at me. "How in Arceus's name do you not have any money? You can get tons of it from battling!"

"And lose tons of it by bribing people to not battle," I muttered, remembering endless bribery on Route 22. "So," I said, "how much do I have to pay if I lose?"

Lily then gave the longest explanation I had ever heard. In a nutshell, there's a lot of math factoring in you and your opponent's Pokémon, their levels, movesets, amount of damage taken, blah blah blah… But, thankfully, there was another method that apparently pretty much everyone used.

"Or the Route number times a hundred," Lily concluded, and I sighed in relief, since I didn't have to carry a calculator and math textbook with me everywhere.

I began to head to the south of Santalune City, to where Route 3 lay. Barely making it five steps, I stopped and turned around, facing Lily who had followed me the short way.

"I don't have 300 Pokédollars," I said cautiously, "so if I lose…"

"You just pay however much you have left," finished Lily. I must have gotten kind of pale, because she hastily added "Don't worry; you can spend a night in the Pokémon Center for free, or you can always camp out on one of the Routes."

After contemplating my options, I decided to head to Route 3 and try my luck there. With Lily in tow, Team Demigod headed out to fight in their first legit trainer battle…

…Maybe. The Route was bone dry. I swear that a dried-out Tangela (who gave me nightmares later) rolled across the path like one of those tumbleweeds in the Old West. Lily seemed just as shocked as I was to find the empty Route, and we wandered around for a bit.

We looked at each other, sitting down by a pond. "Are all Routes here this empty?" I asked her.

"No," she said sort-of hollowly, "this… is just… something is wrong." Lily stood up, looking around for anything that could have been out of the ordinary.

I began to search too, though not as Oh-dear-Arceus-I'm-the-only-one-who-can-save-it-all-y as Lily. I was beginning to compare her to the games' protagonists. Because here's the question: If the Champion is the strongest Trainer in the region, then why not take out the team instead of leaving it to some half-baked ten year old?

Seriously beginning to hate Diantha, Cynthia, Lance, and all the other Champions who did nothing (Red and Gold took out Rocket, and Gary Oak was a much better guy than the game portrayed), I never noticed the boiling foam behind me. The pond, which had seemed so cute, and innocent, and pond-y, was now a giant whirlpool of death.

"Oh-", was all I managed to get out after I turned around, since a giant wave collapsed on Lily and me.

Once, a long time ago, I went to the beach every summer. One of the few things I remember was losing my flip-flop (like an idiot) in the ocean, and going after it (like a bigger idiot). The waves there were various sizes, some small, some large, but none of them were over ten feet tall. Running into the surf, I searched for my teal flip-flop (like that's easy to find in the ocean).

To my misfortune, a particularly huge wave crested just over my five-year-old body. I barely realized it was there until hundreds of gallons of water slammed onto my back. Lying in the sand, it was fairly traumatic (how else would I remember it all these years later?) for li'l' tiny me. Thankfully, my flip-flop was tossed back onto higher ground with the wave, so the only thing lost was a bit of my pride.

The wave that crashed down on me now made that look like I was hit by a squirt gun. And this one was on my face. Lily and I were swept away in a watery torrent of watery torrent-y-ness.

The wave began to dissipate about ten yards away from where we were, and Lily and I were deposited onto the now-soaked grass on the edge of the forest.

"Wha-wha-… what was that?" Lily stammered, staring at the pond, which had smoothed over, and looked just the same as it did before. We shakily stood up, checking ourselves for no missing items or appendages, and went over to the pond's shore to check out the pond.

"I think this is why the Route's so deserted," I said bluntly. "I highly advise getting out Hattie right about now." Lily pulled out her Ultra Ball and released Hattie.

Just clarifying this, Emolga defy gravity. Hattie was just floating in the air, drifting up or down every so often. She floated in front of my face, breaking out into a silent laughter when I jumped back, avoiding the sparks that she sent out for no discernable reason.

Lily looked at me, who had brought out no Pokémon on my own. "What about you?" she said. "I can't do this all by myself." I wanted to say 'Oooh kay, go get 'em, Tiger!', shove her into the lake, and let Lily handle this all by herself.

But, I liked Lily, and wasn't that big of a jerk, and instead said "Okay." I released the still-casted Epsilon, who wobbled unsteadily on her paws for a moment before steadying herself. "See?" I told Lily, "and my other Pokémon is a fire-type."

Hattie float-lowered herself down to Epsilon's level, and they started chatting about Arceus and every other Pokémon knows what. Lily and I observed the conversation with mild interest.

Glimpsing something behind Hattie's shoulder, I leaned around it and saw that the pond water began to froth again.

"Look out!" I warned the members of our group. Everyone turned around and saw the churning pond. The four of us began backing away, and were prepared to run (or, in Hattie's case, float) away when a purplish beam charred a hole in the dirt, its path right between Lily and I, who froze and slowly turned around.

Floating above the pond's surface, glaring at us with its scarlet eyes, a new Dragon Beam of Doom Death charging in its gaping mouth, was a…

"Mega Gyrados."

**Author's Note:**

Hi guys! River has returned from the Distortion World to bring you a new chapter with a new character! OH DEAR ARCEUS THE NEW CHARACTERS! I assure you, Dear Reader, that Lily will be the last one for now. The beach story is 99% true; I probably forgot something somewhere.

And with a new Arc, comes a new schedule. Basketball season has begun for me, and I shall post on Thursdays, Sundays, and the occasional Tuesday, depending on my buffer. But, I can't update on Thursday, since I have a 2k word essay due, and the majority of my time will be dedicated to that.

No new profile pic, I'm working on a different piece that is actually close to completion.

Reviews are appreciated, but I'll still luv you guys if you don't. :)


	16. Megas in the Wild

**Author's Note:**

A while ago I went to see Frozen in theaters. It was alright, but something was way more important. A new. Freakin'. MUPPETS. MOVIE. I LOVE the Muppets. And an evil villain like 99% identical to the protagonist who imitates him for evil porpoises? Sounds like Mike/Mal from TDAS. I just hope they pull it off better.

Also, Gyarados's name is retarded. I call it Gyrados most of the time. And I spell it Gyardos.

**Epsilon's POV**

A Gyarados. It looked a bit odder than usual, as it seemed more… compact. It was difficult to describe. I personally haven't seen many Gyarados before, but this one looked fatter than the few I have seen.

"A Mega?" asked a girl who was with River. Hattie had said that her name was Lily. "But... they need a trainer! And a Mega Stone!" She had barely said the last word when another Dragon Rage went hurtling straight towards her. We all froze, and time itself slowed down.

The purplish beam went straight for Lily's face as she stood there, not moving a muscle. When the attack was less than a foot away from her face, a bolt of bright blue electricity slammed into it, diverting its course.

Unfortunately, that new course was directly at me. Thankfully, I didn't become frozen in shock as Lily had been, and nimbly dodged the Dragon Rage. It crashed into the ground, creating a good-sized crater where I had been standing just a moment before.

"Oh, Arceus," gasped Hattie, floating in the air with her tiny paws over her mouth, "I am SO sorry!"

I gave her a lopsided grin as my paws paid me back for my sudden agility. "I'm fine. But we won't be if the Gyarados hits us again!" My voice rose to a shout of alarm as I stared at the Mega, which was beginning to get a purplish aura around it as it charged yet another Dragon Rage.

This time, the attack was directed at Hattie, who soared out of the way, and did a sort of spiraling roll around it, sailing straight for the Gyarados.

"Volt Switch!" she announced, pulling up from her flight path about a meter away from the Gyarados, shooting a ball packed with electricity at it in her place. As the Gyarados was hit by the attack, Hattie was sucked back into her Pokéball, as a Heracross was forced out into reality.

It blinked rapidly, glancing around at the reality it came out in. "…What am I needed for?" he asked. A particularly loud roar from the Gyarados caused him to turn and stare at it.

I was tempted to say 'that,' but I was more preoccupied with the Surf the Mega Gyarados was sending out. After outpacing the wave by far, I skidded incredibly awkwardly, looking at how much destruction the wave created as I tried not to pass out from paw pain.

Everything was soaked. The trees, the shrubs, the packed dirt pathway itself had turned into a giant mud puddle. I was surprised with myself that I had managed to avoid this with only a few splashes of water. The Heracross, however, was not as fortunate as I.

He was on his knees, struggling to get up. To my amazement, he staggered to his feet, and swayed a bit on them. His arms went from a deep blue, much like my horn's color, to a dark molten red.

"Brick Break!" he called, leaping up with a newfound agility.

"No, Marc, you're weak to-" Lily yelled to him, before hearing the Gyarados screech in pain. "… what?"

After an "Oooohhh...," River explained that "Mega Gyarados lose their Flying, and gain a Dark typing." Lily nodded in understanding a moment later and watched the ensuing battle.

It was awfully one-sided, as Marc the Heracross kept up an endless barrage of Brick Breaks that kept the Gyarados on the defensive. But it was tough enough to survive a lot of them, and eventually Marc's attacks began to falter.

The Mega seized its opportunity and launched yet another Dragon Rage at Marc. The Heracross took the attack from a near point-blank range and collapsed. He wasn't moving.

"Oh, crap. Hattie!" called Lily, retrieving Marc and bringing Hattie out. "Thunderbolt!"

Hattie grinned after getting her bearings and closed her eyes, apparently in deep concentration. Her body took on a yellowish glow just before the bolt of electricity shot out of her. The Gyarados took the Thunderbolt pretty badly, collapsing on the pathway after a brief moment of trying to stay in the air.

We all cautiously headed closer to it, worried that it would attack again. Hattie was not as concerned about her safety as the rest of us and did a victory dance on it.

I rolled my eyes and prodded it with my casted paw. It didn't react, so I pressed down harder. After I was pretty much putting my body weight on it, and had given it a decent-sized bruise, I pulled away. "It is very possibly be dead," I announced. A split second after I said that it twitched, causing all four of us to jump.

River pulled out her Pokédex and began fiddling with it. I didn't really care that much about what she was doing, so I went and sat by Hattie, who had settled to the ground after being launched off the Mega Gyarados.

"Hi," I said.

"Hi."

"So," I said, "this was kind of fun, wasn't it?"

Hattie shrugged, a small smile on her face. "Sort of. I just hope that Marc is okay."

I couldn't remember exactly who he was, but I realized after a moment. "The Heracross, right? He's gonna be fine."

"I'm sure he will be," Hattie agreed. We sat there in silence for a good while before a shout from one of our Trainers brought us to our paws.

It was Lily. "This," she said, "is LYSANDRE'S?!" I'd heard that name before, but couldn't place my claw on it (or anything, really).

"So Lysandre's not allowed to have an extra-deadly Pokémon on his team?" questioned River. "I feel like we should return this to him. Or maybe hand it in to the police or something."

"But they're probably still examining the Gym," Lily pointed out. "Besides, we should give it back to him. What's the harm?"

River gave a sly grin. "We shall find out if there is. Should we like, take it to the Pokémon Center to return it?"

Lily glanced at the easily thirty-foot-long Pokémon. "That would be difficult," she said.

"Yes, it probably would be," River agreed. Then, she took out a Pokéball and threw it at the Mega. It snapped in half. "Dammit," she cursed, "I thought that would work."

"How?" Lily asked.

"Well," River explained, "if it's Lysandre's, and he's off in Lumiose doing whatever billionaires do, why would he leave a Mega Gyarados that was still his own out here in the middle of nowhere? I reasoned that he must have released it at some point, and I tried to recapture it."

Lily nodded. "That makes sense. But now what do we do with it?" We all sat and thought about it for a few minutes before River just got up and walked away.

"Hey!" Lily yelled after her. "Where are you going?"

River glanced over her shoulder, not breaking stride. "Getting someone who can help. Like, a Psychic or something who can levitate stuff."

"That makes sense," Lily said as she began to follow her. A few steps later, she stopped. "What about keeping an eye on the Gyarados? You know, make sure it doesn't run away?"

I could do that. So to convey my meaning, I poked Lily on the side of her knee with my plaster paw, gesturing to myself with it when she looked down.

"What?" she asked me, crouching down so that she'd be at eye level. "You want to watch the Gyarados? What if it tries to attack you?" I glanced, and sort of tilted my head towards Hattie, and Lily followed my gaze. "…Oh," she said finally.

As Lily ran over to River to tell her that I'd be staying here, I trudged over to where the Gyarados lay, still unconscious.

Hattie floated over, landing softly on top of its head. "Watcha doin'?" she asked.

"Keeping an eye on the Gyarados for our trainers," I replied. Hattie shrugged and sat down beside me. "I noticed you have a Heracross on your team," I said, trying to make conversation.

"Yes, you have acknowledged him before," Hattie said, "several times. He was the first on the team, technically. We were both gotten off the GTS in Lumiose City, but Marc was the first one out of the two of us."

"GTS?" I asked.

Hattie looked at me for a moment, then nodded. "Oh, I don't think you'd know. It's a way to trade Pokémon with other regions over the Internet."

"The Internet?"

"This is going to take a while," Hattie sighed.

From what I learned from the lecture, the Internet was a sort of alternate reality, like the Distortion World, but this one was digitalized. Anything could be transported across the world in a matter of seconds, and that was how she and Marc had ended up with Lily.

"So she didn't catch you?" I asked after the lecture was over.

"Nope," Hattie replied, "and I doubt she ever will catch any Pokémon."

I stared at Hattie, disbelieving. "You're kidding."

"No, I am not," she said. "Frankly, Lily's a bit of a coward. We sneaked through Route 4 and never encountered any Trainers, even though I'm pretty sure Marc and I could take them easily."

"Seriously?" Hattie nodded sort of grimly. "Wow. I feel kind of bad for you. But don't you have to actually battle the Gym Leaders to get the badge?" I asked.

Hattie shrugged. "Yeah. But I think Lily's only afraid of wild Pokémon and Trainers on Routes. If there's a Center within sight, she's perfectly fine to battle. Although it did take like two weeks for Lily to build up the courage to challenge the Gym today."

I nodded, saying "So she's just extremely paranoid."

"Yes. Yes, she is." With that, Hattie and I fell into a lapsed silence as we both stared at the still unconscious Gyarados.

We stayed like this for Dialga knows how long. I nearly fell asleep at least half a dozen times before I snapped awake again. A twitch from the Gyarados woke me from my most recent stupor, as Hattie and I both jumped out of our skin.

I gave the Emolga a sideways glance. "Would you please zap it with lightning again?" I asked her.

"With pleasure." Hattie took on the yellow aura she had had before when I felt something's eyes on me. As I turned back to see what was staring at me, Hattie let the electricity fly.

Before the Gyarados was electrocuted again, I saw that its scarlet eyes were trained on me. I shuddered a bit, watching as it was taken back into unconsciousness.

I sighed and settled down again, staring at my casted paws. "This is going to be a long, long time."

"I feel you, brother."

My right eye twitched as I whipped my head around to glare at Hattie. "I am a _girl_," I growled, my casts actually glowing slightly purple as I unconsciously charged a Shadow Claw out of pure annoyance.

"Sorry," Hattie said as she put her paws in the air in defense, "that's what I call everyone." I rolled my eyes and resumed the studying of my paws. They still hurt, but it was a more muffled pain than a sharp one. Unless I ran around a lot. Then I was tempted to amputate them.

Hattie noticed my paws. "What happened?" she asked me.

"A Dunsparce," I replied, regretting it a moment later. Dunsparce were retarded. If I said it was, I dunno, a Nosepass, it'd have seemed much more impressive. But no, I had to say that the lamest Pokémon in existence has given me a cast for six weeks.

But Hattie didn't seem to think so. She gave a low whistle (which was still pretty high-pitched) and said "That must have hurt."

I grinned and stood up a little straighter. "Yup," I said. "I had to go through surgery and everything."

"Wow," Hattie whispered with wide eyes.

Smiling, I lay down and started to doze, not really caring that I was supposed to be doing guard duty.

Hattie, unfortunately, noticed my slacking. "Hey," she said indignantly, "you're supposed to be keeping an eye on the Gyarados!"

"Fine," I sighed, and opened one eye. That's how I fell asleep, with one eye open. I could sort of see the fainted Mega, but the image was outrageously blurry.

That eye must have slipped shut at some point, because seemingly a moment later, my entire body was on fire, and I collapsed, not to wake up for a long time.

**Author's Note:**

I feel really bad for all of Epsilon's endless punching bag treatment. But every good story needs some sort of comic relief character. And Hecate would kind of suck at that. And like every other character I have planned out would also suck at that.

For the last two days I have been sick as an Arcanine, with a fever and a nonexistent voice. But I had plenty of time to write and watch Percy Jackson and the Sea of AntiCanon. I warn all of you who have read the books by Rick Riordan, do NOT WATCH THE MOVIE. JUST, NO. I have been scarred, and I do not wish for you to share the same fate as me. I'm still gonna go watch the Muppets, though.

Reviews appreciated, as usual, and see you next time!


	17. Forever on Hold

**Author's Note:**

OH MY FREAKIN' ARCEUS I LOVE YOU ALL FOREVAH! 1000 VIEWS! SOMEONE KNOCK ME OUT BEFORE I HAVE A HEART ATTACK! Seriously, you guys are amazing. You are the reason I do this. You are why I keep on keeping on. So thank you.

EDIT: Now it's 1200. May Arceus bless you all with an IRL cookie since I can't do that.

**Hecate's POV**

I came out in the Pokémon Center. Were we here again for Olaf? Curious as to why we were here yet again, I found Trainer's leg and nudged it with my head.

"'Sup Hecate?" she said, looking down at me from the chair she was sitting in. "I'm bored waiting for Lily to be back here." I had no idea who Lily was. After a moment, Trainer elaborated. "The trainer from in front of the Gym. Her Heracross was hurt, and it's being treated now, and I'm bored."

"Oh," I said as I settled down, gazing at the tile floor. Time ticked endlessly by. With no way to see the sun, I had no way to judge how long it had been since I was sent out from my Pokéball. They both had pretty much the same level of excitement, so I wouldn't object if she sent me back in there. But she didn't.

In fact, I was just about to fall asleep when I heard a door swing open. Trainer jumped to her feet, nearly tripping over me as she ran over to greet a girl walking into the room.

"Hi, Lily," Trainer said, "is your Heracross okay?"

The girl who I now remembered as Lily nodded. "Yeah. Now we just have to go find a psychic or something." Why did we need a psychic? Trainer and Lily began to walk out of another door as I was mulling over the circumstances in which we'd need one, and I followed, barely paying attention to what was ahead of me.

Which proved to be a horrible idea as Trainer stopped after a few feet. I crashed right into the back of her knee, causing her to collapse on top of me.

"Oh, crap!" she yelled as she was falling. I tried to flee, but the crook of her leg had caught me. Straining, I twisted my head and stared at the falling torso in sheer terror.

Thankfully, Trainer managed to get her hands behind her back, and held herself up so that she looked a bit like a table. I was able to scoot out from under her literally in the nick of time, since she collapsed onto the floor after a few seconds of maintaining her position.

"… What was that about?" Lily said after a moment of silence, staring at our performance.

Trainer stood up, dusting off nonexistent dust. "I have no idea. But I realized something."

"What is it?"

"Mega Gyarados is part Dark Type." When did Trainer encounter a Mega Gyarados? I felt kind of upset, because I didn't see it and they were incredibly rare.

Lily contemplated this a moment. "Yes. Yes it is." So what exactly did Darkness have to do with anything? Telepathy or something? Whatever the reason, our group stayed standing in the room for several minutes, trying to come up with a solution to whatever problem we had.

Eventually, Trainer grinned and said "Viola."

"Yeah, I know we're challenging her, but her Gym's kind of closed off," Lily said, looking at Trainer.

"So? She's basically the mayor of the town, she HAS to be able to help with something like this!"

"Probably," Lily agreed. The three of us walked out the door (without any interruptions this time) and made our way to the Pokémon Gym. The road this time was more tightly packed with pedestrains flowing towards it. I almost lost Trainer several times, but I always managed to spot her black high-top sneakers at the last second.

When we made it through the continuously thickening mob, we found ourselves held back by the yellow tape that said POLICE LINE: DO NOT CROSS. Looking back, I had no idea where the crowds ended. Probably because all I could see was a forest of legs.

Along with the mass of human beings was a chorus of complaints and protests.

"I want to challenge you!"

"Get out here!"

"We're going to battle. Now!" Those Trainers did not have much patience. Or understanding. To be honest, I was surprised that the police tape had held for this long.

"This isn't going to work," Lily shouted to Trainer and sort-of me over the general din. We nodded to show that we heard, and our small gang began to make our way back out of the crowd.

Which proved much easier said than done. The general current of human beings, which had aided us before, now left us struggling to gain every inch. Thankfully, the push was slightly less with each said inch, and after a bit we were in a fairly clear road.

"So, what now?" Lily asked as we collapsed onto a sidewalk. The crowd in front of the Gym began to get ridiculously huge. Santalune City was fairly small, and it seemed like half the population of Lumiose had packed itself in front of the Gym. It was unrealistic.

"I dunno. Call her?" Trainer suggested, holding up a small object that loooked like a silver cone with the entire top sliced off, leaving a small, almost cylindrical, wedge remaining.

Lily cocked an eyebrow. "You seriously have her number?"

"…No."

"I thought so."

We stayed there, slumped down on the curb as the crowds still grew. How many of these people wanted to challenge the Gym Leader? They'd need about twenty Leaders to keep up with this demand. And think of the number of requests for the Champion! You can only challenge once every six months, but still. So many battles! Diantha managed to find time to shoot movies, too. Wow.

I was musing over this when I saw Lily's face brighten. "Call Lysandre Labs!" she proposed. I tilted my head, not understanding.

"Them? Why?" Trainer was on about the same level of comprehension as I was.

"Because," Lily explained, "we can tell them about the Gyarados. They come in, all is well, and we can get you some freakin' money."

Shrugging, I agreed to the plan in which I frankly didn't care. Lily pulled out her own cylinder and started poking a set of buttons on the side. A light flared on the top and a holographicdisplay popped up in the air.

"Oh. My. God," Trainer said, mouth agape, as she stared at the HoloCaster. "Everyone has one of these. I do not believe this witchcraft."

"You'd better," Lily countered as she began fiddling with the machine again. This time, on the holographic touch screen. After several seconds of various button pressing, I could hear a faint ringing coming from it. Curious, I perched myself on Trainer's knee to get a better view.

There was a small picture of a phone buzzing. Apparently Lily was calling someone on her HoloCast, and I was curious as to who it was.

"_Hello. This is Lysandre Labs. How may I help you?_" said a robotic voice that came out from the device when the call connected.

"Erm, hi," Lily stammered, "I'm Lily, and I have something to tell you."

"_Yes?_"

"Well, um, you see, we, I mean my friend River and I, the two of us, we," stammered Lily. She was ready to continue, but Trainer facepalmed herself, and took the small disc, cutting Lily off mid-stutter.

"Hi. We know where Mr. Lysandre's Mega Gyarados is," she summed up rather effectively. Lily was a bit mad at Trainer, but she got over it within moments.

"_His Gyarados?_" the woman said, all monotonous robot pretenses gone. "_Okay, I'll… um… talk to some people… please hold._" And like that, the holographic vision of her vanished, to be replaced with HOLD in thick letters.

Trainer lowered it from her face, glaring at it. "… Welp, what do we do now?" she asked to no one in particular. Lily and I shrugged, and we sat there, staring at the HOLD that we all suspected would never change.

"…Let's just go back to Hattie." With nothing better to do, the three of us got up and walked away from the ever-growing mass of humanity to Route 3, Lily's HoloCast turned off.

I was beginning to simply not believe the crowds. I suspected most of them were either figments of my imagination or just drawn in to the hubbub. And I was leaning towards the first one. Was there any time at which I was inflicted with Spores or Psychic stuff? Mew was still there, but I doubted this was his doing.

We left the town, the sidewalks and streets turning into grass and dirt almost instantly. Staring at the ground for no real reason at all, I heard an "Oh my god," and looked up.

The Gyarados had woken up. And by the looks of it, killed Epsilon. At least, that's what it looked like at first glance. Even though my entire body was in pure shock, my paws propelled themselves towards the falled figure, which was smoking purple. Epsilon's entire body was tinged violet.

As I approached her, I noticed that Epsilon's sides were moving, however weakly. I broke out into a ridiculous grin and ran up to her, Trainer at my nonexistant heels. Lily kept at a slow-ish walk behind us.

"Oh dear Arceus in heaven," I murmured as I looked at Epsilon's charred body. It was stained dark purple in various places, and her dark patches, like her horn, were pure black instead of their usual navy blue. "This is nasty."

And none of us noticed the Gyarados who caused it had gone missing until a roar came from beyond the treeline. All three of us turned our heads towards it, and a tube of water spewed out of the canopy.

"… I believe that is where the Gyarados is," stated Trainer.

"And hopefully Hattie, because she isn't here," Lily said from behind, her eyes wide. She immediately began to sprint towards where the water came from, and probably wouldn't have noticed if the entire forest caught aflame.

Trainer and I followed her into the woods, but at a bit more of a leisurely pace, after Trainer returned Epsilon. She pocketed her Pokéball as we came upon a small clearing.

The Mega lay on the far side of the clearing, looking like a Magikarp out of water, which it technically was. It stared at me with downcast eyes. It was really depressing, actually, and I couldn't help feeling bad for the raging beast.

"Okay. The Mega is here, Epsilon is practically dead because of it, and it's in sight. Time to panic?" Trainer whispered, ever sarcastic.

"Not on my watch," Lily replied. "Marc! Go!" The Heracross who had just been healed not an hour ago emerged from his Pokéball, horn incredibly intimidating. I was actually envisioning myself as a Fennekebab before it turned around, facing us and scaring me out of my wits even more.

"Hello, folks. What do you need me for?" he asked with a small bow. The Gyarados rose to its full height, casting a shadow on Marc. The shadow began to disappear, however, as a purple ball of enery formed inside its gaping jaw.

Marc, thankfully, noticed the light shifts on the ground and the terror in our eyes and turned, just before the energy ball was released and everything vanished in a cloud of dust.

I woke up Arceus knows how much later at the edge of a crater, covered in dust. Trainer and Lily were farther back, still unconscious. I staggered to my paws, and a flash of white passed by barely an inch from my face, causing me to jump back in alarm.

The blur made a loop, then settled in front of me, showing itself to be Hattie.

"Hi!" she chirped, holding out a webbed paw.

"Hi." We shook paws, having a bit of an issue with it since my paws were not designed for such a thing.

"So, what brings you here?" I asked the Emolga.

"Oh," she said, "I'm just talking to the Mega Gyarados. He's just misunderstood."

I cocked an eyebrow, not believing her. "Misunderstood? That thing nearly killed Epsilon and just blew up both of our Trainers!"

Hattie shrugged. "He's not a saint. But you should see his master."

"You mean trainer?"

"No, I mean master."

"Okay…" I was beginning to be creeped out. Nobody calls their Trainer Master. Not even the most rebellious Scrafty.

I was becoming even more scared when I heard a deep, rumbling voice behind me.

"Hello, kid."


	18. Almost Pure Smurf

**Author's Note:**

I am watching Monsters University. In Spanish. Because I can. But it makes it very difficult to listen and try to take in the Spanish parts when you're writing in English. Sort of not really trying to learn the language. But hey, Let It Go in Spanish has gotta be awesome, right?

**River's POV**

Great day, huh? I go to challenge the Gym first thing in the morning and find out said Gym is unable to have battles, and meet Lily. The two of us then go off to get me cash, and we find ourselves an abandoned Route, which had become so thanks to a rogue Mega Gyarados, who had just very probably killed me.

But that proved to be untrue, since I felt my eyes open onto an unnaturally bright blue sky.

"Nyyyyyyeeeeeeuhhh…" I muttered as I tried to get my arm to do what I wanted it to, which was pushing me to my feet. It would occasionally twitch, but forget waving or grabbing something. After some time of blindly trying, I managed to flip my head to the side so that I could see my attempts.

My arm was purple. A deep purple almost the exact shade of Epsilon when she got a new shade of skin. I even forgot my motor coordination experiments to stare at it for a good five minutes. It was that repulsive. It wasn't bleeding or anything, my skin just turned a new shade of violet that would spawn a whole new race. And month of its own so that everyone would be completely sure that we're not racist at all.

Eventually, I got over the new coloration (sort of), and tried to move it again. Apparently I gawked at it for so long, that my nerves had finally worked out their knots and decided to move properly again.

My other limbs had regained their mobility during that time spent staring as well, so I propped myself up on lavender elbows and looked out onto the clearing to find out what in Arceus's name happened.

A crater. A giant crater lay just beyond my toes, about, I dunno, 30 feet in diameter. And in front of me when everything blew up was Hecate. I started panicking when I thought of that and as a result got a splitting headache. Stress does not help when you've just almost blown up and very likely gotten a concussion.

I ended up nearly passing out, the headache was that bad. Lying on my back again, I stared up at the still way-too-blue sky, wondering exactly why it was like that. Maybe a result of PESD (post-explosion stress disorder) made everything seem more vibrant. My own skin was a horrible reference to test that theory out on, though.

So I got on my elbows again and peered at the grass surrounding the crater. It looked a bit brighter than I remembered, but not as crazy techno glowy as the sky had become.

Trying to stand up proved to be a nightmare. First, I had to get my hands on the ground in a sort of backbend-y way, and my wrists had not decided to love me again just yet. Eventually, I got them solidly planted on the grass, and pushed myself up.

And faceplanted. I overshot my trajectory, and instead of taking the forward motion into my knees, I kept them rigid and my momentum carried me over into the dirt.

But this time, I fell into the crater. I sklidded (slid/skidded) down the hill on my face, face first, slowing to a dusty halt at the bottom of it.

Since I was on my stomach, standing up was easier, and this time I bent my knees, so that I didn't fall in the dirt again. Dusting myself off, I began to climb to the lip of the opposite side of the crater. Thankfully, I was pretty much in full control of my muscles, so there wasn't much of a problem going up.

I'd heard voices the whole time I was conscious, but never really paid attention to them until now. But now, coming upon the edge of the crater, the voices were even more pronounced.

My eyes crossed over the top of the rim, and I nearly fell back down into the crater again. Because what I saw was probably the strangest I'd ever seen. Like, ever ever.

The Mega Gyarados, which already looks like a giant dragon-headed Bass (the fishy kind) so it's really weird looking already, was sort of curled up on itself so that it was sitting on its tail-fin thing. Which was flat-out creepy to look at. And the fact that the behemoth had puppy eyes made all the more Oh Dear Arceus What Am I Seeing?

My eyes (and everything above it) were the only things out of the crater, so the Gyarados, whom I'd dubbed Karl back when we'd met him at the pond/lake, didn't notice me. And I kind of preferred it that way. The crater was maybe eight feet deep and had an incredibly shallow slope, so I dropped onto my stomach and army crawled to the lip of it, which my body did not particularly enjoy.

Once I was a bit closer to Karl, I could see exactly what he was puppy-eyeing. It was Hecate. The two of them, plus Hattie the Emolga, were having some deep, heartfelt conversation that could have been about the weather on Mt. Moon for all I knew. And now I had no money to go and buy the translators in Paris!

I was groaning about this in my head when I heard an actual groan behind me. Lily, who had still been passed out beside me when Karl attacked, was waking up. Thankfully, the three conversing Pokémon in front of me didn't hear the moan.

Reverse army crawling is nearly impossible. At least, the actual legit way, pushing yourself backwards with your forearms. Pushing yourself diagonally along a sloped, dusty surface could be qualified as an Olympic event, it's that tricky. And I could get the first gold medal ever in it!

It did not help for my attempts at discreetness that Lily was moaning even more behind me, making me worry that Karl would hear us. If I was that loud waking up, then it was a miracle, straight from Arceus, that I wasn't heard before. I was seriously beginning to think that Lily was just groaning to be dramatic.

But it turned out that it was not just for show, because I finally figured out that (gasp) I could just turn myself around and army crawl that way and made it to her. Lily was just as violet as I am, and she looked a bit ridiculous. Everything, even her blonde hair, was some shade of purple, making it look as though I was wearing tinted glasses. If I looked like that, then wow. I'd have to see myself in a mirror before whatever made me this shade wore off.

Lily was moaning like crazy, and her one arm was flopping about in front of her. She looked like a zombie, if zombies were purple. Could zombies be purple? Maybe if they died by drowning in grape juice or something. That would actually be kind of cool to see. A purple zombie, not dying in grape juice.

I heard a roar from behind me, and I jumped out of my purple skin. Thankfully, it turned out that Karl was only mad about something. Which may have not been so thankful. But, actual thankfully, it wasn't mad at me or Lily, and pretty soon it calmed down from whatever rage it was in.

At some point in waiting for her to wake up, I gave up on Lily's anti-midafternoon bird tendencies and grabbed her under her armpits, aiming to drag her back to somewhere. It could be Kanto for all I care. It could be the Distortion World. I just wanted to get the two of us out of here.

Lily was pretty heavy. Or my arms may just be crazy noodley. Either way, it was extremely slow going with me dragging her. I was flat out exhausted after five feet. But, some sort of endurance-y type of adrenaline kept me going all the way back to the main path of Route 3.

Which actually had some Trainers on it this time. Probably because Karl had stopped ambushing them all. One boy, clad in a yellow backwards-turned cap, actually went over to us and helped me with Lily.

"… Why are you purple?" he asked, giving me a sideways smirk/grin.

"I have no idea."

"Huh." And that pretty much concluded our conversation. The two of us dragged Lily in silence past the other gawking trainers, up to the gateway that marks the entrance of Santalune City.

After looking at Lily's dirt-stained, shredded shirt, the two of us decided that it would be a horrible idea to drag her on the sidewalks, and left her on the side of the Route to still wake up. I sort of envied and sort of pitied her ability to sleep so heavily.

I rested my back against a tree, panting from the effort. The other trainer sat cross-legged on the other side of Lily's still-sleeping body. I was tempted to shout as loudly as I could into her violet ear, just to see if she would finally wake up.

But I wasn't that mean and decided to just sit there and bear her endless moaning. "Thanks," I said to the trainer who'd helped me. He shrugged and smiled, staring at his shoes.

He was about to say something, but Lily let out the loudest groan I'd ever heard. It was maybe in the 90s in terms of decibels. We both grimaced, and looked at Lily, who seemed to finally be waking up.

And it was not graceful in any way. There was yawning, and arm sweeping, and rolling around trying to get back to sleep, but Lily woke up in the end.

"…Nyyyyeeeeeuuuhhh," she moaned, much like myself when I awakened, and looked at the two of us with unfocused eyes. "Where am I? And why are you purple?"

I shrugged. "Still have no idea."

"Oh. Who are you?" she asked, turning to the boy.

He smiled. "Ethan," he said, holding out a hand. Lily grabbed it in hers, and did a double-take. "What?"

"I'm... I'm… I'm _purple_," she said, as if she had a deadly, incurable disease. "This is horrible! Oh dear Arceus!" She started hyperventilating, and I was tempted to roll my eyes. Ethan looked to be in the same boat as me.

Eventually, Lily calmed down a bit, and with the aid of Ethan and I, managed to walk into Santalune City. The three of us sat down at a table at the same restaurant Lily and I were at not very long ago.

"What… happened?" Lily asked, still staring at her violet hands. She and Ethan looked at me, and I felt a trickle of sweat slide down my back. I'm not the best with a bunch of people staring at me.

"A Mega Gyarados attack both of us and left us purple. It's still in that clearing along with Hecate and Hattie. They were having some sort of conversation, but don't ask me what it was about," I replied.

"And Marc?"

"…I have no idea." Lily went pale, which looked a bit comedic since her face went to a nearly white shade of lavender. She buried her face in her hands and refused to come out. I sighed and turned to Ethan.

"So," I said, "What brings you to Route 3?"

"I was visiting a cousin in Santalune City. I decided to train my team here for Morty's Gym back in Johto."

"You're from Johto? I don't have a slang name for that yet…" I mused. "Johkies? Johpes?"

Ethan rolled his eyes. "I'm from Johto, I am a Johtonian, and-" he was about to say more before I cut him off.

"Canadian."

"What." It was not a question, but a statement. Ethan said it in a low voice, staring at me with wide eyes that thought I was crazy and deserved to be tossed in the loony bin.

I sighed. "If you try to question it, I will have no response." Or not one that can be explained without a history book on hand and several hours to kill.

"Then I will not question it."

"Good boy."

We sat there in silence for a long while, Lily still with her head in her hands. I looked up from the spot my eyes were boring into on the table and noticed something odd.

"The crowds are gone," I noted, seeing the empty street.

Ethan turned to look behind him. "There never were any," he said. He turned back and faced me, looking at me with concern. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said, "but like two hours ago there were crazy crowds in the streets."

He cocked his head. "No, there weren't. Did the Gyarados do something to your head?"

"I have no idea," I confessed. "He turned me purple, at least."

"Yes, he did," Ethan agreed, "but was there anything else that happened?"

"No…"

"Okay. But you're better now, right?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Good. Now let's go see if the Gym is open finally," Ethan said. "That's why you're here, right? It's the main highlight of the City."

"It is," I said, nodding.

"Okay, then let's go," Ethan said, getting up from the table. I stood as well, and left Lily to her grief.

Together, the two of us walked to Viola's Gym, leaving Lily in our wake.

**Author's Note:**

So close to lateness! But I did it! Yay! And you guys have no idea how much I wanted to break the fourth wall, but I, and it, held strong.

Ethan is Ethan from Gold and Silver and stuff. So yeah, I'm sort of going into video game canon. No anime unless I feel like it or it is required. And I've never read the manga anyways.

Reviews appreciated, as always. Love you guys. :)


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